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[GrizzlyAdamz]

Spoiler: Ukrainian propaganda aimed at the EU audience (click to show/hide)

Those propaganda guys need to work on their game. Some measly photoshops on post-card backgrounds? Come now. Where's the art? The passion? The exaggerations, stereotypes 'n slurs?
2/10

[Criptfeind]

Where's the Today - Donetsk. Tomorrow - Dell Rapids? Why Ukraine not want world policemen to step in and oh that right American policemen suck.

[Helgoland]

So I hear Seehofer, the Kaiser of Bavaria, wants to put controls on the border to Austria tu curb the flow of African immigrants, stating that Lampedusa must not become a suburb of Kiefersfelden, which is a settlement no non-Bavarian has ever heard of.
Why this might spell trouble: Bavaria is practically Germany's tea party. Loud, dumb, borderline fascist, and with entirely too much influence on the federal level.

[LordSlowpoke]

Bavaria is practically Germany's tea party. Loud, dumb, borderline fascist, and with entirely too much influence on the federal level.

this post is so rhinelandian somebody just threw a steel mill through my window

but yeah

refugees

they're a problem, no matter if you think they should be stopped or not - if we allow them in, we've got to introduce them to society somehow, if they should be stopped, how do we do so without going full america on the mediterranean

i for one say that allowing for there to be any smuggling in or out of the union is a really bad thing - first of all these refugees pay trillions of dollops to get to the union somehow and that causes one hell of a black market, and the gods only know what else is smuggled alongside said people

and of course there's the matter of people being smuggled out for nefarious purposes, or being straight up enslaved upon arrival

so yeah keep the border secure thank you

how we actually take refugees in after we close the border is a straight up mystery, pick them up at our embassies or something?

[da_nang]

MH17 preliminary report

[andrea]

somebody proposed offering a public ferry service across the mediterranean, which should outcompete the people smugglers in both price and safety. Tickets would help fund the service and it is easier to control the inflow of people and to be sure they aren't enslaved/forced to criminality.

It is an unusual proposal . but it has some benefits ( and drawbacks, of course)

[RedKing]

So I hear Seehofer, the Kaiser of Bavaria, wants to put controls on the border to Austria tu curb the flow of African immigrants, stating that Lampedusa must not become a suburb of Kiefersfelden, which is a settlement no non-Bavarian has ever heard of.
Why this might spell trouble: Bavaria is practically Germany's tea party. Loud, dumb, borderline fascist, and with entirely too much influence on the federal level.

Oh, no dangerous fascist thinking ever came out of Munich...

somebody proposed offering a public ferry service across the mediterranean, which should outcompete the people smugglers in both price and safety. Tickets would help fund the service and it is easier to control the inflow of people and to be sure they aren't enslaved/forced to criminality.

It is an unusual proposal . but it has some benefits ( and drawbacks, of course)

This would like offering a toll bridge on the Rio Grande open to all. Political non-starter. Not to mention, you create a single point of exploitation at the receiving terminal. Every slaver and con-man in Europe would be hovering around there.

[Sheb]

Well, crossing the Mediterannean to Europe is  only a 50 $ Ryainair ticket if you don't want to be smuggled in. What you'd need is a system of work permits, combined with faster processing of real refugees.

[smjjames]

Well, crossing the Mediterannean to Europe is  only a 50 $ Ryainair ticket if you don't want to be smuggled in. What you'd need is a system of work permits, combined with faster processing of real refugees.

That's in US dollars though, a good deal of those who want to get out don't even have that much in equivalent exchange of local currency.

[Helgoland]

Why not process them in their home countries or in North Africa? Anyone we find here without a permit is shipped back, no exceptions, but there's a ferry as described above for those who have one, and all European embassies offer access to such permits if the requirements are met.
It's the same as the current system, just that people need to travel less.

Edit:

Bavaria is practically Germany's tea party. Loud, dumb, borderline fascist, and with entirely too much influence on the federal level.

this post is so rhinelandian somebody just threw a steel mill through my window

Hey - half of Germany thinks so, and newspaper articles semi-ironically suggest just throwing the Bavarians out of Germany would be a good idea all the time.

[Helgoland]

Whoops, sorry.

[Owlbread]

I have to say that, as reluctant as I am to touch Germany's territorial integrity (their federal model is a nice example of something that can work) it would probably work best if Bavaria was independent. They're at least as different from the rest of Germany as Austria, anyway.

[martinuzz]

somebody proposed offering a public ferry service across the mediterranean, which should outcompete the people smugglers in both price and safety. Tickets would help fund the service and it is easier to control the inflow of people and to be sure they aren't enslaved/forced to criminality.

It is an unusual proposal . but it has some benefits ( and drawbacks, of course)

This would like offering a toll bridge on the Rio Grande open to all. Political non-starter. Not to mention, you create a single point of exploitation at the receiving terminal. Every slaver and con-man in Europe would be hovering around there.

That aside, to think that any ferry service would ever be able to provide enough supply to sate the demand is wishful thinking, at the very least.
In practice it will only mean that some people that are assertive and antisocial enough, to elbow-stomp their way through the proverbial queue for ferry tickets, will be able to use it, while the rest (probably the bulk) will still depend on illegal, and dangerous human trafficking.

[Sergarr]

I have to say that, as reluctant as I am to touch Germany's territorial integrity (their federal model is a nice example of something that can work) it would probably work best if Bavaria was independent. They're at least as different from the rest of Germany as Austria, anyway.

But wouldn't that just lead to Bavaria becoming the greatest exporter of dumb politicians in Europe?

[Sheb]

Helgoland, that would cause a whole bunch of problems, like the fact that when people flee a place because they're in danger, they don't really want to spend 6 month waiting for the embassy to process the paperwork. Also, international law force us to accept legitimate refugees when they show up. Finally, having done some activism related to refugees in Belgium, I don't trust our asylum institution (whose main goal seems to send as many people back as possible to please xenophobic voters) so I prefer to have them operate closer, where activists and human right lawyers can more effectively monitor them.

Having such refugee processing done in North Africa (where you already have camps full of wannabee migrants) I could be okay with though.