No story brought this home to me more powerfully than a grandfather who spoke of national news stories about what he described as the whining and crying on elite college campuses by those who demanded “safe places” and “safe zones” where they will be sheltered from anything that remotely offends them. He spoke of ingrates wanting special “only me” safe places where they do not have to do anything, hear anything, see anything, or be around anyone or anything they don’t like.

In that farmer’s mind, while the safe-space crowd whined about its “offendedness” and demanded entitlements, children of agricultural families were up early in the morning working on their chores and projects, followed by a full day at school, coming home to more work – all while being part of a family, a community, and a nation.

He described watching youngsters at county fairs and livestock shows hauling feed, cleaning stalls, washing and grooming livestock, shoveling manure, unloading and loading their family trucks and trailers, and trying to sleep in uncomfortable chairs – all while ungrateful elite college students failed to appreciate their pampered lives.

In this gentleman’s world view, it was not black versus white, rich versus poor, feminism versus patriarchy, illegal versus citizen; rather, it was those who produce nothing believing themselves entitled, without appreciation, to the goods produced by others versus those who actually produce.

Although this grandfather did not use the exact words, he pretty much described a political elite and liberal establishment as thinking of American agriculture families as nothing more than serfs in a self-protecting, self-serving feudal system.

She is under pressure from the same forces that elevated Mr Trump in America, fueled Britain’s vote to exit the European Union and are now propelling the populist Marine Le Pen in France. At home, the hard-right Alternative for Germany party has scored a string of victories in state elections.

Ms Merkel needs to fend off a resurgent Russia that is promoting its brand of illiberal democracy by backing right-wing parties throughout the Continent and fanning the flames of populism. But with Mr Trump openly admiring Russia’s president, Vladimir V Putin, even maintaining economic sanctions imposed on Moscow over conflicts in Crimea and Ukraine will be a challenge.

“Never before has so much ridden on the Germans,” said Simon Tilford, the deputy director of the Center for European Reform in London. “We’re very fortunate that Germany is led now by Merkel, because there is a chance she will step up and do what Europe needs her to do.”

An increasingly divided Europe is looking to Germany, its richest power, to cope with its many problems, some of them longstanding: low growth, a continuing stream of refugees, and increasingly angry and nationalistic electorates.

Italy and Spain are politically fragile, Austria might elect a hard-right president next month, and Ms Merkel faces difficult negotiations with Britain over its so-called Brexit. And with Mr Trump advocating “America First” and questioning the value of the NATO alliance, there is pressure on Germany to take a greater role in European security — always a delicate matter.

For the last eight years, Ms Merkel could count on the steadfast backing of President Obama and France’s Élysée Palace. But with the ascent of Mr Trump and the deep unpopularity of President Franςois Hollande, she has lost that vital backing.

AfD vice-chair Alexander Gauland also called the reaction of the German establishment “shameful” and chastised specifically Defence Minister Ursula Von der Leyen and Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier for their “embarrassing” reaction, reports Kurier. “I call on all German politicians, no matter what party affiliation, to moderation and prudence in this matter,” Gauland said.

Defence Minister Leyen had said the victory of Donald Trump was a “great shock” and was concerned about the direction it would take the US Gauland responded to her comments saying: “I expect the German Minister of Defence will not fall into shock, but will work on a reasonable transatlantic security partnership with the new US administration.”

The AfD vice-chair stated: “Germany must learn to act more independently,” referencing Trump’s earlier speeches in which he said that European countries must pay more into alliances like NATO to ease the financial burden on the US. Earlier this year, Mr Gauland called German Chancellor Angela Merkel a “dictator” and said that due to the migrant influx Germans were feeling like strangers in their own country. “We are open-minded, we are tolerant, we are not against foreigners. But it is our country! And it is our people! And it is not the land of strangers,” he noted.

The AfD vice-chair has also been at the forefront of his party’s opposition to the Islamisation of Germany and advocates the shutting down of radical mosques. Earlier this year he said: “Islam is not a religion like Catholic or Protestant Christianity,” affirming: “It is always intellectually linked with taking over the state.”

This statement has appeared against the background of the successful operations of the Syrian army in Aleppo, the approach of "Admiral Kuznetsov" to Syrian shores, which is now carrying out training flights and other war games near Greece and Cyprus, and, of course, the US defeat of supporting terrorists mode.

However, yesterday Russian President Vladimir Putin said in his statement in the Kremlin, that Moscow would contribute an Inter-Syrian dialogue as the solution to the crisis depended on diplomatic talks. Vladimir Putin said: "Russia, together with the interested countries, contribute to launching an Inter-Syrian dialogue. We are convinced that the solution of the Syrian conflict should be political".

It struck at the shallow depth of 3.1 miles, 28 miles from the town of Amberley which has a population of 2,000 people. Tremors were felt as far afield as the cities of Dunedin to the south and Wellington on North Island, reports the New Zealand Herald.

There have been reports of serious damage to houses in the town of Cheviot on the South Island's east coast. In 2011, 185 died when a quake struck Christchurch. The city's central business district is still recovering from the disaster with piles of bricks, ruined and abandoned buildings dotting the streets.

Romanian general elections will be run on December 11. The Netherlands votes in March, French Presidential elections will be held in late April/beginning of May. Germany in September, Czech Republic in October. Plus local elections in Germany and several presidential elections. And the populist candidates are already sensing victory.

Immediately after Trump was declared 45th president of the USA, Marine Le Pen in France said: “Nothing is immutable. What has happened this night is not the end of the world, it’s the end of a world.” Even more pertinently Le Pen’s chief strategist Florian Philippot tweeted: “Their world is collapsing, ours is being built.” And yet another former prime minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin added: “The boundaries of reason disappeared with Brexit, the main lesson for France is that Le Pen can win.”

Mr Trump has promised to renegotiate America’s trade deals and has threatened to pull the US out of the World Trade Organisation. He has also threatened tariffs on imports from Mexico and China, which experts fear could raise domestic inflation and affect European exporters.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) has already projected the growth of the eurozone GDP to decrease to 1.5 percent next year and that estimate was with the US economy picking up. A former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson said: “Trump’s trade-led recession would trip Europe back into full-blown recession, which would likely precipitate a serious banking crisis.

“If this risk were not contained and the probability of a European banking debacle is already disconcertingly high, there would be a further negative spiral.” French president, Francois Hollande, said: “Certain positions taken by Donald Trump during the American campaign must be confronted.

“What is at stake is peace, the fight against terrorism, the situation in the Middle East. It is economic relations and the preservation of the planet.” European foreign ministers are set to meet on Sunday to asses what impact Mr Trump’s election victory will have on transatlantic relations.

Jürgen Hardt, the German government’s Coordinator of Transatlantic Relations, spoke of the "necessity for us Europeans, and particularly for us Germans, to assume more responsibility." This "responsibility" would "grow" under a US President Trump and this concerns "all … instruments of foreign and security policy." The call for more German influence reiterates positions recently voiced in Berlin's foreign policy establishment, demanding "not to leave stability policy proposals up to the USA," but to independently evaluate how to "shape the future global order."

German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen and Chairman of the Munich Security Conference, Wolfgang Ischinger, are linking this demand to a call for significantly increasing the German military budget.

It calls for a more aggressive German and European foreign policy that is ready, “whatever the election result” to pursue economic and geopolitical aims independently of the United States and, if necessary, against Washington.​ ​Just before the election, a column on Spiegel Online provided a taste of what this means.

Under the title, “How Trump could force Germany to rearm,” a certain Henrik Müller forecasts: “Should Donald Trump be elected US president on Tuesday, Germany will face a great debate regarding rearming. It could become the decisive theme of the [German] federal elections in 2017 — an intense controversy with the potential to divide the country.”​

Speaking to students at a conference in Luxembourg on Friday, Jean-Claude Juncker said the 70-year-old former reality TV star was ignorant of the EU and its workings, and would "waste time for two years" while touring a world "he is completely unaware of".

"We will need to teach the president-elect what Europe is and how it works," Juncker said, adding that Americans usually had no interest in Europe."I think we will waste two years before Mr Trump tours the world he does not know," said Juncker, who on Thursday had already raised doubts about Trump's views on global trade, climate policy and Western security.

This is just vicious stuff. But for pure pathos crossing into the absurd, we turn (as usual) to the college campus. Consider:

The University of Michigan offered its traumatized students coloring books and Play-Doh to calm them. (Are its students in college or kindergarten?)

The University of Kansas reminded its stressed-out kids that therapy dogs, a regular campus feature, were available.

Cornell University, an Ivy League school, held a campus-wide “cry-in,” with officials handing out tissues and hot chocolate.

Tufts University offered its devastated students arts and crafts sessions (OK, not kindergarten — more like summer camp).

At campuses from elite Yale to Connecticut to Iowa and beyond, professors canceled classes and/or exams — either because students asked or because instructors were too distraught to teach.

Anarchist-fueled violence and destruction can’t be tolerated. Nor should corporate (or anti-corporate) temper tantrums that blatantly violate free-speech rights.

Collegiate sobbing and wailing, on the other hand, shouldn’t be tolerated — especially not by the parents who are shelling out tens of thousands of dollars to pay for it. And they all should consider that their reaction to Trump’s win goes a long way towards explaining precisely why he did!

Under the Italian constitution any new law needs to be approved by both the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate, often resulting in delays. But on December 4, the Italian public will get to decide whether they want to stick with the old way or shake things up by restructuring the legislative process by effectively reducing the second chamber's power.

Mr Renzi has vowed to resign and abandon politics if the constitutional reforms are not passed and opponents appear to have seized on what they see as an opportunity to oust him and press ahead with their own populist anti-EU agendas. Ms Toschi said: "There is certainly a lot of interest on the upcoming Italian referendum and what its result may mean for the future of Europe's political stability.”

At the heart of the proposal is pooling of military assets, administration, and infrastructure, releasing resources that can be deployed to develop technology and the development of tangible capability, including a consolidated force that can defend European cyberspace.

France, Germany, Italy, and Spain are calling for a common European defense policy that does not depend on the United States. Britain vows to block the union for as long as it remains in the EU. The German Minister said on Monday that missions such as patrolling the Mediterranean for migrant crossings should be a job for the EU, not NATO.

Eurosceptics fear that federalists in the EU will seek to force through a more integrated defence strategy, including an EU army. Mr Van Orden slammed the “ayatollahs of European integration” for what he saw as using Brexit to bring about a European Defence Union. He told EuroparlTV: “I suppose many would say that the United Kingdom has been the most hesitant about a European Defence Union. We don't want to see a European army.

“Maybe with the prospect of the UK now leaving the European Union, they see this as an opportunity. And indeed I've heard that some of the ayatollahs of European integration that exist in this Parliament have specifically said this.”