Meetings still continue between the three odd political parties.....the SPD, the Linke Party and the Greens.
Someone set into motion a campaign strategy that it would be a unified front by the three partners for the 2017 national election. In some ways, there's a belief that even for the three state elections in the spring of 2017.....this trio-strategy might help.
There's never been an episode where German political parties banded together and tried to influence an election.....so it's hard to say where this will go.
The problems?
1. If you went to a hundred SPD members and suggested that they would partner up with the Linke Party (the former Communist Party of DDR in reality).....roughly a quarter (my estimation) of that group would have serious problems in voting with the SPD. Even if they'd been solid 30-year voters and supporters of the SPD.....this would trigger serious acceptance problems. Who would this group go to and support in this case? It'd typically be the Greens, but the Greens are part of this agenda as well. My only guess is the FDP might remain an option for this group of disgruntled voters.
2. Oddly, all three of these parties were big supporters of asylum, immigration and migrants since 2014. No one has said much but I would anticipate their stance to stay on the same trend. They will refuse to allow the election to be about this topic, and try to force their agenda to be on something "else" (maybe anti-US, anti-Trump, pension reform, etc). Generally, you get the impression that a number of SPD folks and Linke Party members have serious problems with immigration and asylum in Germany. The Greens? Much less so. This group agenda might swing half-a-million voters away from the team effort, toward someone else (maybe AfD, maybe FDP).
3. The potential for one single scandal to take down the whole trio strategy. If we come to July of 2017 and in the heat of the election business....there's some major issue that pops up with one of the parties.....like illegal money coming into the Linke Party, or some Green Party member caught in some serious in a major drug case....it hurts all three of them at the ballot box.
4. The final potential stumble? If all three are so agreeable....why maintain three separate parties? Eventually, some German will ask this question in a public forum and the moderator will quickly try to dismiss the idea, but it'll linger. It is a curious question. What really separates the three? Thirty years ago, it would have been simple to divide the three in terms of political topics and agendas. Today? Half of their agendas are basically identical. If you read their energy policies....it's basically the same. The immigration policy? Basically the same. The minimum wage policy? Basically the same. Tax and redistribution policy? Some basic differences but all three go in the same direction.
As much as they think this unification will help and forge an election win....I would probably be wondering if it hurts all three in some different ways. The Linke Party took 8.6-percent in the last election. Nationally, there is some thought that they are weaker this time around.....with some members having gone to the AfD. If they got less than 5-percent? They won't be allowed into the Bundestag. This large investment of man-hours to get all three into better and positive numbers? It might be all wasted.
So, I'm not really buying into this as a great idea. But if you wanted a left-left-left government, well.....this is the only scenario to reach that point. Oddly, while most of Europe is going right-wing.....would this left-left-left agenda be workable? No.
Sunday, October 30, 2016
Friday, October 28, 2016
Fur, Gegan, and Democracy
I'm in the midst of a German course. So we reached this epic point today where two German words were introduced.....fur (for) and gegan (against).
The particular sentence that the instructor decided to use for text, was Wir demonstrieren_____mehr Demokratie.
It basically translate to We demonstrate _______ more Democracy.
So I looked at it for about sixty seconds (more than I should have), and I came to the decision that it ought to be 'gegan' (against) more democracy. Naturally, the right answer given by the instructor had to be 'fur' or for.
Oddly enough, several of the Syrians in the class also voiced 'gegan' or against. But I think they felt the minute you use the word "demonstrate"....you are against something.
One can be amused over this, but it brings up this odd part about German culture, demonstrations, and politics. In a normal German world.....you can never have enough democracy. Normally, democracy equates to some style of government where the residents or citizens of a state, typically through elected representatives....run a government.
The reality of democracies is that you want a simple method of democracy that works without a lot of "buts", "exceptions", or shifts because of this group having favor over another group. The more rules you add to democracy....tend to make it bulky and unable to perform at it's maximum potential.
To be honest, it's hard to find any demonstrations in Germany over the past fifty years that was for MORE democracy. You end up seeing mostly demonstrations about certain groups who feel they've been cheated out their fair share, or want some change in government to favor their agenda, or they want rights that don't exist on paper and get the impression that the Bundestag won't act.
I probably should just concentrate on Germans words and not get get all hyped up on texts used for stupid word recognition or language training.
The particular sentence that the instructor decided to use for text, was Wir demonstrieren_____mehr Demokratie.
It basically translate to We demonstrate _______ more Democracy.
So I looked at it for about sixty seconds (more than I should have), and I came to the decision that it ought to be 'gegan' (against) more democracy. Naturally, the right answer given by the instructor had to be 'fur' or for.
Oddly enough, several of the Syrians in the class also voiced 'gegan' or against. But I think they felt the minute you use the word "demonstrate"....you are against something.
One can be amused over this, but it brings up this odd part about German culture, demonstrations, and politics. In a normal German world.....you can never have enough democracy. Normally, democracy equates to some style of government where the residents or citizens of a state, typically through elected representatives....run a government.
The reality of democracies is that you want a simple method of democracy that works without a lot of "buts", "exceptions", or shifts because of this group having favor over another group. The more rules you add to democracy....tend to make it bulky and unable to perform at it's maximum potential.
To be honest, it's hard to find any demonstrations in Germany over the past fifty years that was for MORE democracy. You end up seeing mostly demonstrations about certain groups who feel they've been cheated out their fair share, or want some change in government to favor their agenda, or they want rights that don't exist on paper and get the impression that the Bundestag won't act.
I probably should just concentrate on Germans words and not get get all hyped up on texts used for stupid word recognition or language training.
The German Happy Index
When a Mercedes comes off the German assembly line.....there's a list that is filled in and probably notes at least 10,000 quality points of manufacture. The glass window is properly sealed, and made up of such-and-such material, which meets X-number of required safety features. The air conditioning works like it should. The seats are firmly attached. A Mercedes customer can look at the sheet and feel some sort of comfort and rest assured that it's not some nickel and dime assembly.
Well....the German government has decided to take this concept of quality points, and apply it to life.
It's called the 'good life index'.
It took several years of scientific discussion and review....coming to 46 factors...which allocate out to twelve different dimensions. The nifty thing, at least what they say? You can measure each one of these.
For example, there is a concept called "Working well and getting a fair share". Everyone in Germany is hyped up on getting their fair share. It's part of the wealth redistribution game. If they take 8,000 Euro from you over the entire year in taxes....sometimes even nickel-and-diming you....you kinda expect your fair share back.
Another items is actual take-home pay. It doesn't matter what you make in pay.....because after the pension, health care and various tax items (even church tax) is taken out.....do you have enough to make you happy? Well, it's a measured item as well.
Where does this list of 46 factors lead to? Some Germans.....particularly politicians....want to pick this up every four years and announce their new strategy by picking the weaker of the 46 points, and building special programs around them. They could then go and tell you that by voting for them.....you are improving your quality of life.
As you look at this concept.....you kinda wonder if the Berlin crowd is really that far outside of the circle of regular Germans....that they need someone or some list of measurements.....to tell them where they screwed up. How they Germany advance so far in life over the past two-hundred years.....without such a list? Or was it simply the leadership and authority not such a big deal and 99-percent of Germans were picking up shovels each day and moving the country and society ahead with no real concern of quality of life?
Back in 2014, a number of Germans spoke up about the immigration and asylum business. Questions were raised, and they were basically told that they were not informed or reacting in the proper way. Two years have passed, and now various politicians are being met in state elections, and told by the public to go home.....being replaced by frustrated and angry voters across the German heartland.Would the quality of life list or 46 factors have predicted that? I doubt it.
It is an intellectual tool.....if you sit and think about this long enough. It uses scientific principals to establish guidelines and suggest happiness or unhappiness. On paper, it makes sense and I would take a guess that this started out as some political figure's Theseus from his or her university days. They tinkered with it.....had group discussions, and convinced themselves that politics can be handled via a measured process.
If you'd taken this and applied it to the US in 2008.....it would have said you needed a new health-care program to make everyone happy. So you would have made a new health-care program, and like we can observe today, six years later, it' s more or less a failure, and financially bankrupting the nation. The happiness index? People are unhappy......so you'd have to prioritize your gimmicks once again and re-invent the health-care program into something else.....temporarily making people happy, until they are unhappy once again.
Yeah, the index gimmick doesn't necessarily make things "right", it just gives you a tool to tell the public that you think their issues are worth fixing.....but fixing them doesn't mean that they really get fixed.
Then you come to the final issue.....getting a happy and unhappy group of Germans to be humble and admit their status in life. Sadly, a lot of Germans whine.....even when they are driving a new Mercedes, drinking a five-star beer, and having just wrapped up a four-week vacation in Crete.
When you hear about this happiness index in Germany.....that's the 'jest' of the whole story. It's supposed to fix the nation.....one way or another.
Well....the German government has decided to take this concept of quality points, and apply it to life.
It's called the 'good life index'.
It took several years of scientific discussion and review....coming to 46 factors...which allocate out to twelve different dimensions. The nifty thing, at least what they say? You can measure each one of these.
For example, there is a concept called "Working well and getting a fair share". Everyone in Germany is hyped up on getting their fair share. It's part of the wealth redistribution game. If they take 8,000 Euro from you over the entire year in taxes....sometimes even nickel-and-diming you....you kinda expect your fair share back.
Another items is actual take-home pay. It doesn't matter what you make in pay.....because after the pension, health care and various tax items (even church tax) is taken out.....do you have enough to make you happy? Well, it's a measured item as well.
Where does this list of 46 factors lead to? Some Germans.....particularly politicians....want to pick this up every four years and announce their new strategy by picking the weaker of the 46 points, and building special programs around them. They could then go and tell you that by voting for them.....you are improving your quality of life.
As you look at this concept.....you kinda wonder if the Berlin crowd is really that far outside of the circle of regular Germans....that they need someone or some list of measurements.....to tell them where they screwed up. How they Germany advance so far in life over the past two-hundred years.....without such a list? Or was it simply the leadership and authority not such a big deal and 99-percent of Germans were picking up shovels each day and moving the country and society ahead with no real concern of quality of life?
Back in 2014, a number of Germans spoke up about the immigration and asylum business. Questions were raised, and they were basically told that they were not informed or reacting in the proper way. Two years have passed, and now various politicians are being met in state elections, and told by the public to go home.....being replaced by frustrated and angry voters across the German heartland.Would the quality of life list or 46 factors have predicted that? I doubt it.
It is an intellectual tool.....if you sit and think about this long enough. It uses scientific principals to establish guidelines and suggest happiness or unhappiness. On paper, it makes sense and I would take a guess that this started out as some political figure's Theseus from his or her university days. They tinkered with it.....had group discussions, and convinced themselves that politics can be handled via a measured process.
If you'd taken this and applied it to the US in 2008.....it would have said you needed a new health-care program to make everyone happy. So you would have made a new health-care program, and like we can observe today, six years later, it' s more or less a failure, and financially bankrupting the nation. The happiness index? People are unhappy......so you'd have to prioritize your gimmicks once again and re-invent the health-care program into something else.....temporarily making people happy, until they are unhappy once again.
Yeah, the index gimmick doesn't necessarily make things "right", it just gives you a tool to tell the public that you think their issues are worth fixing.....but fixing them doesn't mean that they really get fixed.
Then you come to the final issue.....getting a happy and unhappy group of Germans to be humble and admit their status in life. Sadly, a lot of Germans whine.....even when they are driving a new Mercedes, drinking a five-star beer, and having just wrapped up a four-week vacation in Crete.
When you hear about this happiness index in Germany.....that's the 'jest' of the whole story. It's supposed to fix the nation.....one way or another.
Thursday, October 27, 2016
Algorithm Talk
There was a speech given by Chancellor Merkel today on an odd topic.
She stood and noted that both Facebook and Google have been seen as manipulating public perception and opinion during this US campaign season. She suggests that the perspective-building is deliberate and connected to a man-made algorithm.
So, Chancellor Merkel wants them to make this algorithm public knowledge.
It is basically opening up a Pandoras Box by admitting this, and then by giving the public this right to view the algorithm. My humble guess is that neither wants to admit this.
Me personally? Why not go to the second step and ask news media operations about their own methods of algorithms.
I suspect that Merkel has awoken in the past month and realized that the various reports that she's read for six months over zero issues with Hillary's emails, her health, and Trump's troubles.....were layered in some way by the media and hyped by Facebook and Google. It has to worry Merkel because the same method could be put into action in Germany for the national election in 2017.
Does it anything? No. But the fact that she noted this in public and said it.....might be simple a early warning about where the Germans might take Facebook and Google in demands.
She stood and noted that both Facebook and Google have been seen as manipulating public perception and opinion during this US campaign season. She suggests that the perspective-building is deliberate and connected to a man-made algorithm.
So, Chancellor Merkel wants them to make this algorithm public knowledge.
It is basically opening up a Pandoras Box by admitting this, and then by giving the public this right to view the algorithm. My humble guess is that neither wants to admit this.
Me personally? Why not go to the second step and ask news media operations about their own methods of algorithms.
I suspect that Merkel has awoken in the past month and realized that the various reports that she's read for six months over zero issues with Hillary's emails, her health, and Trump's troubles.....were layered in some way by the media and hyped by Facebook and Google. It has to worry Merkel because the same method could be put into action in Germany for the national election in 2017.
Does it anything? No. But the fact that she noted this in public and said it.....might be simple a early warning about where the Germans might take Facebook and Google in demands.
Tuesday, October 25, 2016
The Rest of the Story Over Population Decreases
Some folks over here in Mainz, with the Fraunhofer Institute have done a research project and come to a suggested conclusion.
They looked at the population expected by 2030....expected to drop to the range of roughly 5 to 10 million (probably in the range of 70-million instead of the present 82-million).
Here's the thing, less people equal less taxation collected and less sales tax. You can do the math. They figure....at the very minimum....it's one-percent to five-percent lost on what the government needs to function and carry out it's "services".
So, when you start sit back and ponder upon this.....there are some additional conclusions that one might reach.
1. Less tax revenue means less money coming to individual states and cities. So less roads are renovated or repaved. At some point, a district might decide that such-and-such road that currently exists.....can't be maintained between village X and Y....or if the road is allowed to stay....it won't be in any shape for a car to drive fifty or sixty kilometers in speed. Bridges? This will become a major problem in how you schedule bridge replacement or renovation.....with less money available.
2. Airport operations. If you look around Germany, there's no doubt that Frankfurt, Berlin, Stuttgart, Munich, Koln and Hamburg will continue. The rest of the airports? I would question how the states and airport companies make these function with fewer people.
3. Fewer hospitals. At some point, there will be a review and a consolidation of medical services.....probably starting by 2026. In rural areas, fewer hospitals. In urbanized areas, the number will stay the same.
4. University operations. Germany might keep all of its universities operating, but only by accepting a lot more students from outside of the country and making these students pay a decent tuition (figure 12,000 Euro a year).
5. State-run TV. Fewer citizens? Lesser TV taxes paid. Less revenue to run the collection of networks existing now. There's a cut coming one way or another to state-run TV, whether they realize it or not.
6. Railway travel. Less people.....less options. Urbanized areas might be able to keep their number of trips at the same level. Towns sitting fifty kilometers outside of the urban zones? They might have 15 trains come through today, but by 2030....it'll probably be eight to ten at the most.
7. Doctors and clinics in rural areas will generally decrease in number and you can expect a 30 to 60 minute drive in the future to find general services.
8. Farming villages with a population of 500 people today? They will see declines and probably just have around 200 people by 2030 (my humble guess).
9. Beer production? Less people.....less beer consumed. It only makes sense.
10. Farm production? I would suggest that mega-sized operations will become the norm with most farmers farming twice as many acres as they do presently, but fewer farmers existing.
There's a bold new world coming to Germany in roughly twenty years unless something starts to occur with the population.
They looked at the population expected by 2030....expected to drop to the range of roughly 5 to 10 million (probably in the range of 70-million instead of the present 82-million).
Here's the thing, less people equal less taxation collected and less sales tax. You can do the math. They figure....at the very minimum....it's one-percent to five-percent lost on what the government needs to function and carry out it's "services".
So, when you start sit back and ponder upon this.....there are some additional conclusions that one might reach.
1. Less tax revenue means less money coming to individual states and cities. So less roads are renovated or repaved. At some point, a district might decide that such-and-such road that currently exists.....can't be maintained between village X and Y....or if the road is allowed to stay....it won't be in any shape for a car to drive fifty or sixty kilometers in speed. Bridges? This will become a major problem in how you schedule bridge replacement or renovation.....with less money available.
2. Airport operations. If you look around Germany, there's no doubt that Frankfurt, Berlin, Stuttgart, Munich, Koln and Hamburg will continue. The rest of the airports? I would question how the states and airport companies make these function with fewer people.
3. Fewer hospitals. At some point, there will be a review and a consolidation of medical services.....probably starting by 2026. In rural areas, fewer hospitals. In urbanized areas, the number will stay the same.
4. University operations. Germany might keep all of its universities operating, but only by accepting a lot more students from outside of the country and making these students pay a decent tuition (figure 12,000 Euro a year).
5. State-run TV. Fewer citizens? Lesser TV taxes paid. Less revenue to run the collection of networks existing now. There's a cut coming one way or another to state-run TV, whether they realize it or not.
6. Railway travel. Less people.....less options. Urbanized areas might be able to keep their number of trips at the same level. Towns sitting fifty kilometers outside of the urban zones? They might have 15 trains come through today, but by 2030....it'll probably be eight to ten at the most.
7. Doctors and clinics in rural areas will generally decrease in number and you can expect a 30 to 60 minute drive in the future to find general services.
8. Farming villages with a population of 500 people today? They will see declines and probably just have around 200 people by 2030 (my humble guess).
9. Beer production? Less people.....less beer consumed. It only makes sense.
10. Farm production? I would suggest that mega-sized operations will become the norm with most farmers farming twice as many acres as they do presently, but fewer farmers existing.
There's a bold new world coming to Germany in roughly twenty years unless something starts to occur with the population.
Saturday, October 22, 2016
Post-Card in the Mail
This week in my German mailbox, I got a postcard advertisement from Scientology. Basically, they wanted to let me know that I'm only using 10-percent of my full brain-power. I could be doing so much more.....if I'd just contact them, discuss my options, and sign up with their religion.
It's a new method of trying to reach out into the German community and drum up more 'business'.
Scientology had a rough start in Germany. For a number of years, they were 'branded' as a non-religion and that tax-free status was not available to them. At some point a couple of years ago, they finally convinced the government to give them the tax-free religion status. Some people suggest that various foreign government entities (pointing back at the US) got involved and put pressure on the topic.
Since that change, it's safe to say that they haven't advanced far in recruiting Germans. Few news outlets figure the number but I'd take a rough guess that it's in the 4-digit range.
The issue of getting acceptance among Germans goes to three key factors about Germans.
First, there's a large segment of the population who are middle-class or working-class, and they really don't have cash to throw at some religion or enhancement-service. If we were talking about 40 Euro a month, then maybe....but it's hard to find any Scientology service which rates at such level. The intended target has to be the upper class.
Second, Germans are a bit skeptical about religions anyway. It doesn't matter if we are talking about a dozen different religions....they would sit and ask questions....expecting some reasonable answers. In a group of 50 Germans, with some Scientology guy doing his sales-pitch....I doubt if he'd find more than one or two people (with ample money to spend) who'd be willing to listen to more than 10 minutes of the pitch.
Third and final, there's the problem of state-run TV news.....which has done pieces on Scientology and questioned it as a religion. Germans watch these and accept the pitch by the news people. Convincing them to go against the news pitch? It would be difficult.
As for this post-card influencing me? I'm using all the brain-power I have and am fairly satisfied with my output. Maybe if I were doing rocket-science calculations.....it might interest me but if I got so smart.....might I question this as a religion and ask more questions?
It's a new method of trying to reach out into the German community and drum up more 'business'.
Scientology had a rough start in Germany. For a number of years, they were 'branded' as a non-religion and that tax-free status was not available to them. At some point a couple of years ago, they finally convinced the government to give them the tax-free religion status. Some people suggest that various foreign government entities (pointing back at the US) got involved and put pressure on the topic.
Since that change, it's safe to say that they haven't advanced far in recruiting Germans. Few news outlets figure the number but I'd take a rough guess that it's in the 4-digit range.
The issue of getting acceptance among Germans goes to three key factors about Germans.
First, there's a large segment of the population who are middle-class or working-class, and they really don't have cash to throw at some religion or enhancement-service. If we were talking about 40 Euro a month, then maybe....but it's hard to find any Scientology service which rates at such level. The intended target has to be the upper class.
Second, Germans are a bit skeptical about religions anyway. It doesn't matter if we are talking about a dozen different religions....they would sit and ask questions....expecting some reasonable answers. In a group of 50 Germans, with some Scientology guy doing his sales-pitch....I doubt if he'd find more than one or two people (with ample money to spend) who'd be willing to listen to more than 10 minutes of the pitch.
Third and final, there's the problem of state-run TV news.....which has done pieces on Scientology and questioned it as a religion. Germans watch these and accept the pitch by the news people. Convincing them to go against the news pitch? It would be difficult.
As for this post-card influencing me? I'm using all the brain-power I have and am fairly satisfied with my output. Maybe if I were doing rocket-science calculations.....it might interest me but if I got so smart.....might I question this as a religion and ask more questions?
Thursday, October 20, 2016
Reich Citizens?
For decades in Germany, this splinter oddball group....called "Reich citizens"....existed. No one can say with any real evidence how many there are. It might be dozens....it might be hundreds.....it might be thousands.
Out of the late 1930s....some individuals adapted to the Nazi-style behavior, and after the war ended....they didn't fall into line with the new German republic or accept the rules as most Germans did.
This week, a couple of cops were sent to a house in Georgensmund, a fairly rural town just south of Nuremberg. They were supposed to evict a 49-year-old guy from the property. Things didn't go well, and shots were fired (by both parties). One cop is dead, and the other three wounded,
The shooter is a "Reich citizen". He had a gun collection, and was prepared to meet any situation.
This "Reich citizen" thing then popped up big-time in mainstream German news (at least with the state-run TV crowd). The political folks are all hyped up and noting that this has gone for long enough. They want intelligence collection and arrests.
I've done a fair amount of research on the "Reich citizens". They are an independent crowd.....or at least they claim that. Generally, they will try to avoid paying taxes whenever possible. For the most part, they state that German law simply doesn't apply to them.
Neo-Nazis? Yeah, in the basic sense of the term.....they want the standard laws that were in effect in the 1930s to be observed.
Oddly, if you think about it....the Nazis desperately wanted limited to marginal gun ownership. With the Reich citizens.....most all of them are gun enthusiasts and all participate in the German gun license program, which means they have to obey the current German law....not the 1930s law.
The numbers? In each region, there is a "club" or association in existence, and this is the connection of one group to another. ARD says that for the Brandenburg region of Germany....there are roughly 200 members of the "Reich citizen" club. But across all of Germany? Only estimations exist and it's put at roughly a couple thousand.
Why any of this really matters? The intellectuals and journalists have branded these "Reich citizens" as extremists and pressing for some police action. As for arresting thousands? No, that would look extremely foolish. But they would go and invent a massive intelligence collection apparatus that would go and look upon private citizens.
So you sit there......pondering this massive intelligence collection apparatus and wonder.....who else might they then view, and might this broaden out? Strangely enough....they would have gone and created the exact same intelligence collection apparatus that the Nazis of the 1930s would have created. The obvious question is....who is the real Nazi?
Out of the late 1930s....some individuals adapted to the Nazi-style behavior, and after the war ended....they didn't fall into line with the new German republic or accept the rules as most Germans did.
This week, a couple of cops were sent to a house in Georgensmund, a fairly rural town just south of Nuremberg. They were supposed to evict a 49-year-old guy from the property. Things didn't go well, and shots were fired (by both parties). One cop is dead, and the other three wounded,
The shooter is a "Reich citizen". He had a gun collection, and was prepared to meet any situation.
This "Reich citizen" thing then popped up big-time in mainstream German news (at least with the state-run TV crowd). The political folks are all hyped up and noting that this has gone for long enough. They want intelligence collection and arrests.
I've done a fair amount of research on the "Reich citizens". They are an independent crowd.....or at least they claim that. Generally, they will try to avoid paying taxes whenever possible. For the most part, they state that German law simply doesn't apply to them.
Neo-Nazis? Yeah, in the basic sense of the term.....they want the standard laws that were in effect in the 1930s to be observed.
Oddly, if you think about it....the Nazis desperately wanted limited to marginal gun ownership. With the Reich citizens.....most all of them are gun enthusiasts and all participate in the German gun license program, which means they have to obey the current German law....not the 1930s law.
The numbers? In each region, there is a "club" or association in existence, and this is the connection of one group to another. ARD says that for the Brandenburg region of Germany....there are roughly 200 members of the "Reich citizen" club. But across all of Germany? Only estimations exist and it's put at roughly a couple thousand.
Why any of this really matters? The intellectuals and journalists have branded these "Reich citizens" as extremists and pressing for some police action. As for arresting thousands? No, that would look extremely foolish. But they would go and invent a massive intelligence collection apparatus that would go and look upon private citizens.
So you sit there......pondering this massive intelligence collection apparatus and wonder.....who else might they then view, and might this broaden out? Strangely enough....they would have gone and created the exact same intelligence collection apparatus that the Nazis of the 1930s would have created. The obvious question is....who is the real Nazi?
Wednesday, October 19, 2016
The Less Hours Story
I noticed in Yahoo Finance today that this got reported. Americans (we aren't saying which variety)....are working more hours than Europeans. The same study....conducted by economists at Arizona State University, Goethe University of Frankfurt, and McMaster University of Ontario....came to say that the average guy in Europe works 19-percent less than an American.
All of that equals 258 fewer hours a year.....per person.
The same study even indicated fewer vacation days taken by the Americans.
For years, I've observed this phenomenon and just scratched my head.
What do Germans do with the extra time? That's another part of this story but left out by the university research team.
Germans can be divided up into three groups on this 'free' time deal:
1. Sports. I would take a guess that 10-percent of the people in my village....from age 30 to 65....have some sport deal built into their week (swimming, mountain-biking, workouts, tennis, soccer, etc).
2. Gardening and landscaping. I'd take a guess that a quarter of the population have some continuing project involving their garden or renovation for their house.
3. Arts, culture, and 'clubs'. A lot of Germans still dabble in painting, or language classes, or participate with their 'club'.
So, is there a negative to this? A factory that has 3,000 employees in Germany....will take longer to build a product than in the US. You can say it's unfair competition for the Germans because they can't produce the product at the same price. But then you look at quality, and the German product will be better made than the US product in most cases. Why the better quality? The better lifestyle, less stress, less chaos, and happier prospective on life.
If you gave the American less hours and same pay? I'm not sure it'd work. Americans would probably go and find a second part-time job, or find something to get themselves into trouble (an affair, dangerous sport, etc).
Is it this way all over Europe? The research team didn't really say that. It might be interesting to compare the Germans against the Greeks, or the French against the Brits. We might find some strange differences between the various cultures.
So the bottom line? Huns, the German, is definitely working less than Larry, the American.
All of that equals 258 fewer hours a year.....per person.
The same study even indicated fewer vacation days taken by the Americans.
For years, I've observed this phenomenon and just scratched my head.
What do Germans do with the extra time? That's another part of this story but left out by the university research team.
Germans can be divided up into three groups on this 'free' time deal:
1. Sports. I would take a guess that 10-percent of the people in my village....from age 30 to 65....have some sport deal built into their week (swimming, mountain-biking, workouts, tennis, soccer, etc).
2. Gardening and landscaping. I'd take a guess that a quarter of the population have some continuing project involving their garden or renovation for their house.
3. Arts, culture, and 'clubs'. A lot of Germans still dabble in painting, or language classes, or participate with their 'club'.
So, is there a negative to this? A factory that has 3,000 employees in Germany....will take longer to build a product than in the US. You can say it's unfair competition for the Germans because they can't produce the product at the same price. But then you look at quality, and the German product will be better made than the US product in most cases. Why the better quality? The better lifestyle, less stress, less chaos, and happier prospective on life.
If you gave the American less hours and same pay? I'm not sure it'd work. Americans would probably go and find a second part-time job, or find something to get themselves into trouble (an affair, dangerous sport, etc).
Is it this way all over Europe? The research team didn't really say that. It might be interesting to compare the Germans against the Greeks, or the French against the Brits. We might find some strange differences between the various cultures.
So the bottom line? Huns, the German, is definitely working less than Larry, the American.
Tuesday, October 18, 2016
"Terror", My Judgement
Last night on ARD (8:15) they ran "Terror, Your Judgement". It was a 90-minute theater-like fictional piece where a Jihad-like character had taken over a German passenger plane, and was taking 160-odd passengers toward a soccer stadium with 70,000 fans sitting there. A fighter jet was sent and had roughly a minute to assess things, and eventually the Captain on the fighter jet made the decision to shoot down the passenger jet. A court hearing (which is what the whole 90 minutes took up) was to assess innocence or possible guilt of murder charges (160-plus dead).
I tuned in at the 9:00 point.....having spent three hours hanging wall-paper.
Bluntly, it would have taken me 10 seconds to make the same decision as the fighter-pilot.
So after this show ended, there is a vote opportunity. You call in and vote. Naturally my spend-thrift wife dictated in strong terms....that I couldn't vote (I think it would have been a 50-cent vote). I would have voted 'not-guilty'.
But then came the second show.....Hart Aber Fair....where they discussed the matter with a political figure, a retired chief prosecutor, a theologian, and a retired fighter pilot.
Buried in the Basic Law, the German Constitution, is a statement that all people are entitled to life, period, no exception.
So the retired chief prosecutor went with the guilty view, and hyped that for the whole hour. You can't get around this statement of all people entitled to life. There is no waiver or by-pass. Course, once they crashed into the stadium and killed the 70,000.....well....they were entitled to life to and how avoiding the take-down of the passenger jet is beyond me.
The vote? Roughly 87-percent of Germans voted "not guilty". Course, you have to factor in that probably few if any people under the age of 25 watched the movie or voted. You also have to ask how many Germans watched this odd movie. My humble guess is roughly 1 to 2 million, and then you have to ask how many actually voted, or how many were in spend-thrift homes (like me). Maybe this entire vote is based on 80,000 people total.....you just don't know.
I should note this as well (which isn't much of a shock).....this morning, lots of people were noted in complaining that the call-in connection or vote-capability was over-whelmed and did NOT function perfectly. So the vote? Well....it might have gone higher or lower.....but again, you just don't know.
I came to three conclusions by the end.
1. This was created as an intellectual tool to introduce the topic to the public and let them participate in the judgement call. Maybe it's just me, but why not allow other topics to be used as well.....oh....well.....like integration, over-spending by governments, state-run television, taxation, etc. But I guess I'd be opening up a Pandora's Box.
2. The Jihad-guy who triggered this fantasy airline disaster? Never for a single minute on trial. It was very obvious that they didn't want to discuss much of him, or how he took the plane, or his beliefs. He's the one that should have been in the hot-seat.
3. The Spock Rule is the bottom line: "The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few". You can value the lives of the 160-odd people on the plane, but their situation is determined by a crazed-half-wit Jihadist with no appreciation of life, the Basic Law, or human dignity.
I tuned in at the 9:00 point.....having spent three hours hanging wall-paper.
Bluntly, it would have taken me 10 seconds to make the same decision as the fighter-pilot.
So after this show ended, there is a vote opportunity. You call in and vote. Naturally my spend-thrift wife dictated in strong terms....that I couldn't vote (I think it would have been a 50-cent vote). I would have voted 'not-guilty'.
But then came the second show.....Hart Aber Fair....where they discussed the matter with a political figure, a retired chief prosecutor, a theologian, and a retired fighter pilot.
Buried in the Basic Law, the German Constitution, is a statement that all people are entitled to life, period, no exception.
So the retired chief prosecutor went with the guilty view, and hyped that for the whole hour. You can't get around this statement of all people entitled to life. There is no waiver or by-pass. Course, once they crashed into the stadium and killed the 70,000.....well....they were entitled to life to and how avoiding the take-down of the passenger jet is beyond me.
The vote? Roughly 87-percent of Germans voted "not guilty". Course, you have to factor in that probably few if any people under the age of 25 watched the movie or voted. You also have to ask how many Germans watched this odd movie. My humble guess is roughly 1 to 2 million, and then you have to ask how many actually voted, or how many were in spend-thrift homes (like me). Maybe this entire vote is based on 80,000 people total.....you just don't know.
I should note this as well (which isn't much of a shock).....this morning, lots of people were noted in complaining that the call-in connection or vote-capability was over-whelmed and did NOT function perfectly. So the vote? Well....it might have gone higher or lower.....but again, you just don't know.
I came to three conclusions by the end.
1. This was created as an intellectual tool to introduce the topic to the public and let them participate in the judgement call. Maybe it's just me, but why not allow other topics to be used as well.....oh....well.....like integration, over-spending by governments, state-run television, taxation, etc. But I guess I'd be opening up a Pandora's Box.
2. The Jihad-guy who triggered this fantasy airline disaster? Never for a single minute on trial. It was very obvious that they didn't want to discuss much of him, or how he took the plane, or his beliefs. He's the one that should have been in the hot-seat.
3. The Spock Rule is the bottom line: "The needs of the many, outweigh the needs of the few". You can value the lives of the 160-odd people on the plane, but their situation is determined by a crazed-half-wit Jihadist with no appreciation of life, the Basic Law, or human dignity.
Saturday, October 15, 2016
The DNA Story
Toward the end of the week.....the cops came out and noted a DNA analysis episode, where they connected the murder of a young girl to a Nazi-thug (he's dead from a suicide five years ago). It is a bit of a shocker.
A number of folks are asking stupid questions over this DNA connection and if it's screwed up. German cops have this remarkable 'phantom-killer-DNA' episode that sits there in the past which makes them question this story.
The 'phantom-killer'? Back around eight years ago, the German cops had one of their folks killed in some parking-garage and the DNA results led to a special folder.....a person who had murdered at least a dozen individuals. There were a number of cops assigned to this case and major analysis was involved.
There were probably forty separate episodes.....where a break-in occurred and DNA was collected....ID'ing the phantom-killer in each one of these. So eventually, a map was created. Based on one single observer having seen the remarkable killer.....they felt they were dealing with a young lady who was probably 18 by that point, but she might have been as young as 15 when this killing episode started up.
Finally, one detective sat there and put a blank DNA swab in for test. It was straight out of the bag....new....never touching anything.
Oddly, it came back with the phantom-killer DNA.
Naturally, this would make people suspicious.
The lab swore up and down.....they went precisely by the rules and had a clean lab.
So, they looked at the box of DNA swabs and decided to visit the factory....down in Austria. They walk in and the manager is all happy and positive.....giving them a tour. What they come to notice is that at some point.....the swabs are taken in a big handful by some Austrian gal, with her arms touching the swabs. They asked the manager if he knew these were being re-packaged as DNA swabs. Well, no.....he wasn't aware of that. He sold their swabs to various companies and they used them in different ways.
The cops sat there.....all these hours.....thousands of hours.....spent on the phantom-killer episode, which is totally bogus. Every single murder in this group? They had to be set aside and investigated purely as a one-time event by one single person. It was probably the most embarrassing event that the cops in Germany have ever had to admit.
The story itself? Up until the visit to the swab factory.....I think the phantom-killer story was probably a five-star story waiting for a writer to collect everything, and it'd make a great movie. Murders all over the country, some in a vicious way.....done by a teenage killer girl....who remarkably got away each and every time.
So, back to the Nazi-guy who murdered this young girl. If the test is correct.....it might suggest that his file needs to be reviewed in detail, and I'm going to take a guess that they might find more than just this one single young girl dead. Who knows.....maybe in five years.....two or three more deaths might be attributed to this guy. The supporters behind the Nazi-guy? I would imagine they are shaking their heads because this really leads down a dark path and maybe they guessed wrong about this young guy.
A number of folks are asking stupid questions over this DNA connection and if it's screwed up. German cops have this remarkable 'phantom-killer-DNA' episode that sits there in the past which makes them question this story.
The 'phantom-killer'? Back around eight years ago, the German cops had one of their folks killed in some parking-garage and the DNA results led to a special folder.....a person who had murdered at least a dozen individuals. There were a number of cops assigned to this case and major analysis was involved.
There were probably forty separate episodes.....where a break-in occurred and DNA was collected....ID'ing the phantom-killer in each one of these. So eventually, a map was created. Based on one single observer having seen the remarkable killer.....they felt they were dealing with a young lady who was probably 18 by that point, but she might have been as young as 15 when this killing episode started up.
Finally, one detective sat there and put a blank DNA swab in for test. It was straight out of the bag....new....never touching anything.
Oddly, it came back with the phantom-killer DNA.
Naturally, this would make people suspicious.
The lab swore up and down.....they went precisely by the rules and had a clean lab.
So, they looked at the box of DNA swabs and decided to visit the factory....down in Austria. They walk in and the manager is all happy and positive.....giving them a tour. What they come to notice is that at some point.....the swabs are taken in a big handful by some Austrian gal, with her arms touching the swabs. They asked the manager if he knew these were being re-packaged as DNA swabs. Well, no.....he wasn't aware of that. He sold their swabs to various companies and they used them in different ways.
The cops sat there.....all these hours.....thousands of hours.....spent on the phantom-killer episode, which is totally bogus. Every single murder in this group? They had to be set aside and investigated purely as a one-time event by one single person. It was probably the most embarrassing event that the cops in Germany have ever had to admit.
The story itself? Up until the visit to the swab factory.....I think the phantom-killer story was probably a five-star story waiting for a writer to collect everything, and it'd make a great movie. Murders all over the country, some in a vicious way.....done by a teenage killer girl....who remarkably got away each and every time.
So, back to the Nazi-guy who murdered this young girl. If the test is correct.....it might suggest that his file needs to be reviewed in detail, and I'm going to take a guess that they might find more than just this one single young girl dead. Who knows.....maybe in five years.....two or three more deaths might be attributed to this guy. The supporters behind the Nazi-guy? I would imagine they are shaking their heads because this really leads down a dark path and maybe they guessed wrong about this young guy.
Friday, October 14, 2016
The Interview Story
I sat last night and watched the public-run ZDF 9:45 PM news. They went to a live interview with the chief prosecutor of the Saxony region and ran through roughly a dozen questions over the Syrian bomber dude, who is dead now (suicide) after the cops got help in catching him.
Personally, if you look at what the news media has put out over the past five days....it's awful weak and marginal information.
You could tell by the third question....that the ZDF journalist wasn't going to let this be an easy question and answer episode. Each question became more difficult and you could see some "sweat" developing with the prosecutor.
From an American prospective, you reach four observations:
1. While the federal cops were watching this guy for months and knew the implications of his behavior.....they quietly waited in hopes of connecting him to others. When the moment finally came with what they felt was sufficient evidence to issue an arrest warrant.....the federal level prosecutor hinted that he wasn't totally satisfied. No one says why. Maybe there were more questions handed back....but the federal cops decided twelve hours later that they needed a warrant badly.....and went to the state prosecutor instead. Why? This isn't clear and part of the overall problem, I think.
2. How'd the federal cops allow him to escape? This ends up being a one-liner and no one wants to explain the details. They really screwed up badly letting him escape from the scene.
3. More thugs in the background? No one knows. One single guy by himself? No one really believes it.
4. Then this suicide thing. The prosecutor did one of those stupid moments in his comments where he said that 'most suicidal bombers want to commit suicide'. He gives the impression it's not a big deal. But then you sit and think....it's a in special cell....with cameras set up. Yet the cop watching this....does nothing? Why bother with the cameras then?
By the end of these questions.....my impression is that the state prosecutor of Saxony just wants to wrap this up and forget about the whole thing. The federal cops who allowed him to escape.......same thing. My guess is that in six months, most residents of Saxony will have almost forgotten about this episode.
On the positive side.....the guy is off the street and there's a lesser threat existing right now. But you just sit and wonder.....things about this episode just don't fit too well.
Personally, if you look at what the news media has put out over the past five days....it's awful weak and marginal information.
You could tell by the third question....that the ZDF journalist wasn't going to let this be an easy question and answer episode. Each question became more difficult and you could see some "sweat" developing with the prosecutor.
From an American prospective, you reach four observations:
1. While the federal cops were watching this guy for months and knew the implications of his behavior.....they quietly waited in hopes of connecting him to others. When the moment finally came with what they felt was sufficient evidence to issue an arrest warrant.....the federal level prosecutor hinted that he wasn't totally satisfied. No one says why. Maybe there were more questions handed back....but the federal cops decided twelve hours later that they needed a warrant badly.....and went to the state prosecutor instead. Why? This isn't clear and part of the overall problem, I think.
2. How'd the federal cops allow him to escape? This ends up being a one-liner and no one wants to explain the details. They really screwed up badly letting him escape from the scene.
3. More thugs in the background? No one knows. One single guy by himself? No one really believes it.
4. Then this suicide thing. The prosecutor did one of those stupid moments in his comments where he said that 'most suicidal bombers want to commit suicide'. He gives the impression it's not a big deal. But then you sit and think....it's a in special cell....with cameras set up. Yet the cop watching this....does nothing? Why bother with the cameras then?
By the end of these questions.....my impression is that the state prosecutor of Saxony just wants to wrap this up and forget about the whole thing. The federal cops who allowed him to escape.......same thing. My guess is that in six months, most residents of Saxony will have almost forgotten about this episode.
On the positive side.....the guy is off the street and there's a lesser threat existing right now. But you just sit and wonder.....things about this episode just don't fit too well.
Thursday, October 13, 2016
In the Dumpster Business?
Last night, HR (our regional Hessen public-run network) ran an interesting piece on clothing dumpsters.
So, everywhere you go in Hessen (other states as well), there are these dumpsters in various parking lots or beside the road where you can dump your used clothing and the sign on the side chats about these poor African folks which they are helping with clothing donations. Germans are in the habit now of dumping their old clothing into the container and feeling good about where the clothing is going.
So HR's journalist went and analyzed the whole thing.
You see....none of these dumpsters ever get approval by the local government or property owners. Yeah, that was a bit of surprise. When you call the number on the side of the dumpster.....it goes to a cellphone but no one ever answers. Every couple of weeks, someone comes by and empties the can.
Where does the clothing go? The pick-up guy will deliver everything to some warehouse guy who pays X-amount per kilogram for the clothing. Cash.
So this all goes to Africa? No. There is some small part of the profit which does make it to Africa but the majority of this profit is plowed into the dumpster owner and the middle-guy.
So where does the clothing go? Most of the time to Polish or eastern European counties where it's sent into second-hand clothing shops and sold for roughly 60-to-80 percent of the original value. And this second-hand clothing shop guy makes his profit as well.
The cost of a dumpster? Roughly 400 Euro. You see....you don't have to have a license or make any deals.....you just buy dumpsters and put them out. You could have forty dumpsters spread around an entire area with a refugee-worker guy hired up for minimum wage and picking up every week or two. I did the math and figure that with forty dumpsters and just an average haul from each.....you could make at least 6,000 Euro every month, after paying for the hauling expense/driver. Here's the big factor.....no real receipts.....so it's all tax-free. 72,000 Euro a year.....tax free, and the only real cost is the 400 Euro to buy each dumpster and the truck/driver? Yeah.
Illegal? Well...if you find the dumpster illegally in your grocery parking lot.....you can call the cops but generally this is on the bottom of their list. You could "steal" the dumpster and then what? Where would you dump it? Cops readily admitted that there needs to be some better system but the political folks don't seem to be that interested. Small-time crime, but in some ways....it's not really illegal except for the placement of the dumpsters.
How many exist in Hessen? People only take guesses. Around the city of Wiesbaden, I'd take a humble guess that at least 250 dumpster exist within the city limits. You can figure at least six to eight guys or groups are making a tax-free situation with these stupid clothing dumpster. You'd think the tax office would be all over this but even they seem to lack any interest.
I must admit, it's a brilliant way to clear money under the table.
So, everywhere you go in Hessen (other states as well), there are these dumpsters in various parking lots or beside the road where you can dump your used clothing and the sign on the side chats about these poor African folks which they are helping with clothing donations. Germans are in the habit now of dumping their old clothing into the container and feeling good about where the clothing is going.
So HR's journalist went and analyzed the whole thing.
You see....none of these dumpsters ever get approval by the local government or property owners. Yeah, that was a bit of surprise. When you call the number on the side of the dumpster.....it goes to a cellphone but no one ever answers. Every couple of weeks, someone comes by and empties the can.
Where does the clothing go? The pick-up guy will deliver everything to some warehouse guy who pays X-amount per kilogram for the clothing. Cash.
So this all goes to Africa? No. There is some small part of the profit which does make it to Africa but the majority of this profit is plowed into the dumpster owner and the middle-guy.
So where does the clothing go? Most of the time to Polish or eastern European counties where it's sent into second-hand clothing shops and sold for roughly 60-to-80 percent of the original value. And this second-hand clothing shop guy makes his profit as well.
The cost of a dumpster? Roughly 400 Euro. You see....you don't have to have a license or make any deals.....you just buy dumpsters and put them out. You could have forty dumpsters spread around an entire area with a refugee-worker guy hired up for minimum wage and picking up every week or two. I did the math and figure that with forty dumpsters and just an average haul from each.....you could make at least 6,000 Euro every month, after paying for the hauling expense/driver. Here's the big factor.....no real receipts.....so it's all tax-free. 72,000 Euro a year.....tax free, and the only real cost is the 400 Euro to buy each dumpster and the truck/driver? Yeah.
Illegal? Well...if you find the dumpster illegally in your grocery parking lot.....you can call the cops but generally this is on the bottom of their list. You could "steal" the dumpster and then what? Where would you dump it? Cops readily admitted that there needs to be some better system but the political folks don't seem to be that interested. Small-time crime, but in some ways....it's not really illegal except for the placement of the dumpsters.
How many exist in Hessen? People only take guesses. Around the city of Wiesbaden, I'd take a humble guess that at least 250 dumpster exist within the city limits. You can figure at least six to eight guys or groups are making a tax-free situation with these stupid clothing dumpster. You'd think the tax office would be all over this but even they seem to lack any interest.
I must admit, it's a brilliant way to clear money under the table.
Tuesday, October 11, 2016
Reality in the German World?
The scenario: a Lufthansa plane loaded with approximately 150 passengers is taken by hijackers and in a period of twenty minutes....a decision has to be made by German authorities and the Bundeswehr. They've got a fighter jet aloft and simply are following the passenger plane. In a few minutes, it's obvious that it's heading toward a filled soccer arena (Allianz Arena) which has 70,000 fans inside. There's virtually no way that you can get the message to the stadium in time for the 70,000 to escape. So you (the command authorty) pass a message to the pilot of the fighter to down the passenger jet with the Germans onboard. The decision? Do you kill 150 passengers and a terrorist or two.....or allow the 70,000 in the stadium to die?
To add to the scenario now.....weeks have passed and the German bureaucracy has decided that murder charges should be applied against the fighter pilot, in an open court room.
A sampling of what German bureaucracy can become? Maybe, but it's now attached itself to a state-run movie production called "Terrorist" and will be shown on 17 October. At the end of the movie, you will vote (as the public) for the pilot to be cleared or the pilot to be declared guilty. The following night, Hart Aber Fair will run an entire hour of live public forum debate over the consequences.
It's hard to say what was going through the mind of the public-run TV media folks when they approved this movie and the script involved. They obviously want the public to think over the implications and make a decision of who to save....the 150-odd passengers or the 70,000 soccer fans. Perhaps they are preparing the public for an eventual event like this, or bringing the public to some rational understanding of the threat around Germany.
The odds that the word "Jihad" will be uttered in the movie? I really doubt that they'd go and make this into such a movie. My humble guess is that the terrorist involved will barely be shown (maybe two minutes of his threat and the hijacking of the plane itself). The vast majority of this movie is about a court case fantasy to be played out and the fighter-pilot involved who simply took orders and did the best he could to bring down the passenger plane.
Logic? If you are a Green Party guy.....your thinking may lead that it was best to just let it all occur, and let the 150-odd passengers die with the 70,000 soccer fans. If you are a CSU guy from Bavaria....you'd shoot the passenger plane down with three seconds of thinking.
How many will watch this? That's a curious thing. It's on a Monday night at 8:15PM, on a state-run network. They've tried some really creative advertisements for the movie over the past month, and might get some people who are curious. The under-25 crowd? Forget about. For most who get about 30 minutes into this and realize it's just a court debate over accusing some fighter-pilot of carrying out orders, they might just turn flip the channel to some reality TV show or some soccer game. My humble guess is that a quarter of start-up viewers of the movie will be gone by the last minute of the fantasy movie.
So, on the morning of the 18th (Tuesday), if you are an American in Germany.....you might hear three or four of your associates being all chatty about guilt or innocence, and you will know what the topic is all about.
To add to the scenario now.....weeks have passed and the German bureaucracy has decided that murder charges should be applied against the fighter pilot, in an open court room.
A sampling of what German bureaucracy can become? Maybe, but it's now attached itself to a state-run movie production called "Terrorist" and will be shown on 17 October. At the end of the movie, you will vote (as the public) for the pilot to be cleared or the pilot to be declared guilty. The following night, Hart Aber Fair will run an entire hour of live public forum debate over the consequences.
It's hard to say what was going through the mind of the public-run TV media folks when they approved this movie and the script involved. They obviously want the public to think over the implications and make a decision of who to save....the 150-odd passengers or the 70,000 soccer fans. Perhaps they are preparing the public for an eventual event like this, or bringing the public to some rational understanding of the threat around Germany.
The odds that the word "Jihad" will be uttered in the movie? I really doubt that they'd go and make this into such a movie. My humble guess is that the terrorist involved will barely be shown (maybe two minutes of his threat and the hijacking of the plane itself). The vast majority of this movie is about a court case fantasy to be played out and the fighter-pilot involved who simply took orders and did the best he could to bring down the passenger plane.
Logic? If you are a Green Party guy.....your thinking may lead that it was best to just let it all occur, and let the 150-odd passengers die with the 70,000 soccer fans. If you are a CSU guy from Bavaria....you'd shoot the passenger plane down with three seconds of thinking.
How many will watch this? That's a curious thing. It's on a Monday night at 8:15PM, on a state-run network. They've tried some really creative advertisements for the movie over the past month, and might get some people who are curious. The under-25 crowd? Forget about. For most who get about 30 minutes into this and realize it's just a court debate over accusing some fighter-pilot of carrying out orders, they might just turn flip the channel to some reality TV show or some soccer game. My humble guess is that a quarter of start-up viewers of the movie will be gone by the last minute of the fantasy movie.
So, on the morning of the 18th (Tuesday), if you are an American in Germany.....you might hear three or four of your associates being all chatty about guilt or innocence, and you will know what the topic is all about.
The Funding Giant Behind ISIS
If you look this morning, the WikiLeaks crowd has put out fresh emails from the Clinton business. The one that might attract some hostility among Germans? Well, there's a multi-page email which talks at length about the Saudis and the folks in Qatar, who are the ones funding ISIS in Syria and Iraq.
Yeah, shocker, but it's more or less admitted by Hillary herself.....former Secretary of State.
Will it get mentioned via German state-run TV news? No, I seriously doubt it. Maybe the folks at Focus and some newspapers might give it 12 lines, but the national news media probably won't chat about this.
If you stand back and look at this.....here all the frustrations and hostility over immigrants and migrants go back to an unstable region which was paid and funded by the Saudi oil money. If you put this information in front of 82-million Germans, and the one million-plus Syrians residing in Germany currently.....there would be a terrible amount of anger.
All these unnecessary deaths.....triggered by Saudi funding. All the billions of Euro spent by German politicians on refugees.....triggered by Saudi funding. All the political chaos in Germany today....triggered by Saudi funding. AfD and Pegida's status in politics today? All delivered by Saudi funding of ISIS.
Why skipping the matter by public-run TV news? I can only imagine that there was some other agenda tied to this....unrelated to the Saudis.....and no one wants all these agendas laid out in public.
Yeah, shocker, but it's more or less admitted by Hillary herself.....former Secretary of State.
Will it get mentioned via German state-run TV news? No, I seriously doubt it. Maybe the folks at Focus and some newspapers might give it 12 lines, but the national news media probably won't chat about this.
If you stand back and look at this.....here all the frustrations and hostility over immigrants and migrants go back to an unstable region which was paid and funded by the Saudi oil money. If you put this information in front of 82-million Germans, and the one million-plus Syrians residing in Germany currently.....there would be a terrible amount of anger.
All these unnecessary deaths.....triggered by Saudi funding. All the billions of Euro spent by German politicians on refugees.....triggered by Saudi funding. All the political chaos in Germany today....triggered by Saudi funding. AfD and Pegida's status in politics today? All delivered by Saudi funding of ISIS.
Why skipping the matter by public-run TV news? I can only imagine that there was some other agenda tied to this....unrelated to the Saudis.....and no one wants all these agendas laid out in public.
Monday, October 10, 2016
The Thing About Referendums
"I will give a speech to back popular sovereignty, to hand over to the people on such important subjects is to make a choice of democracy,"
-- Nicholas Sarkozy said this as a campaign comment on state-run France 2 TV (Friday night)
Basically, Sarkozy is running a four-star campaign now.....not against the present President of France, but two other right-wing candidates (each from another party).
What he's suggesting is something that doesn't thrill the news media....the political elite of France....or the EU.
Back around twenty years ago....for decades....if you had some referendum come up, then you'd take your political leadership and sit down in some basement room with the state-run news media....to devise a slanted campaign. You figured on 60-percent of the vote and things would easily go your way.
Today? Across all of Europe....from Greece to Sweden, and onto the UK....the state-run news media has been challenged by the internet and social media. You can hustle up any topic you desire, and the anti-crowd can mount an opposing platform within forty-eight hours, and carry the message easily to the public.
The EU crowd doesn't like this type of suggestion of referendums because things could be put up for a vote, and screw up the "plan".
Just on exiting the EU.....I think five European countries could easily mount a 50-percent or better vote right now, without much trouble.
So, you have to wonder.....if Sarkozy were to mount a decent campaign,and win.....would the guy go forward and allow referendums to occur two or three times a year? If someone wanted to tighten up laws on terrorists, or people with the potential for threats.....presenting a referendum, and it passes by say 60-percent.....would the EU suddenly get into the middle of this and say "no, you can't do that". I suspect that Sarkozy is rigging up an eventual confrontation between France, Germany and the EU. The power base of the EU is Germany right now. Maybe the big game involves taking the EU on and insulting them a bit.
I always look at state referendums that I end up voting for in Alabama.....most involve some minor law item, or changing such-and-such law over state parks. The legislation and governor of the state are always careful not to allow four-star type referendums to occur.....because you really can't gauge the success or failure ahead of time. When I look at France and this suggestion of referendums.....you could imagine some five-star moment where funding for state-run TV might be dumped or cut in half, and probably half of the republic would agree to that easily.
So, when you hear this chat going on in France and wonder about the effect.....it's a big deal down the road if Sarkozy does win and implement this.
Sunday, October 9, 2016
The German and the Shopping Cart "Joke"
"What's the difference between a German and a shopping cart? A shopping cart has got a mind of its own."
-- Quote stolen by Wikileaks from a Podesta email that they hacked into.
Basically, this email of an intellectual nature went out and John Podesta and Hillary Clinton got copies, and what the wordy piece of email suggests is that the German integration and immigration policy didn't really have much thought put into the the idea of "who" you were inviting.
I read the piece and they comment very strong at the front of this.....there are various societies that you'd like to recruit from (Hindus, Chinese, Asians, Jews).....where you can show they are great contributors to society. And then, there are various groups which have marginal contribution to society (of which the Islamic religion is mentioned more than once).
The theme of this email exchange is that Germans don't do a lot of thinking. The typical German doesn't have a mind of his own, or do a lot of thinking.....and if they do....it's thinking thrust upon technology, development, or fixing a problem.
I've lived around Germany for a number of years and have admired the amount of thinking put into certain products (cars, washers, cellphones, etc). Guys sit around their garage and develop things that show a lot of initiative. The immigration program? Well.....no. The asylum program? Well.....no. The integration program? Maybe there's some thought but it's marginalized and limited. The education system in dealing with a number of foreign students? Marginalized.
Oh I admit, there are people there who are university-degreed and fully capable of taking on this task. But it seems like it was their year to slough off and just day-dream. Maybe if you'd had some leader-director-Chancellor to kick butt and fire people.....some things would have had planning and thought attached to them.
The thing about this quote....is that it's not really a "joke". It's a slam against German mentality and the inability to think about consequences. You have some European intellectuals who in various ways dislike German intellectuals. I don't sit around and think much about this, or why there is some ill feelings between the two groups. Maybe one group is made up of mostly rocket scientists while the other is just made of guys who read Chaucer or Hemingway.
Will Germans hate the joke? I think the smart guys....the intellectuals will be a bit angry that they were 'slighted' in this commentary, and that Hillary Clinton was part of the slam on them. Most Germans....the non-intellectuals will listen to the joke, and tell you a better joke....like: “Hell is the place where the English cook, the Italians control the traffic systems and the Germans make TV programs.”
-- Quote stolen by Wikileaks from a Podesta email that they hacked into.
Basically, this email of an intellectual nature went out and John Podesta and Hillary Clinton got copies, and what the wordy piece of email suggests is that the German integration and immigration policy didn't really have much thought put into the the idea of "who" you were inviting.
I read the piece and they comment very strong at the front of this.....there are various societies that you'd like to recruit from (Hindus, Chinese, Asians, Jews).....where you can show they are great contributors to society. And then, there are various groups which have marginal contribution to society (of which the Islamic religion is mentioned more than once).
The theme of this email exchange is that Germans don't do a lot of thinking. The typical German doesn't have a mind of his own, or do a lot of thinking.....and if they do....it's thinking thrust upon technology, development, or fixing a problem.
I've lived around Germany for a number of years and have admired the amount of thinking put into certain products (cars, washers, cellphones, etc). Guys sit around their garage and develop things that show a lot of initiative. The immigration program? Well.....no. The asylum program? Well.....no. The integration program? Maybe there's some thought but it's marginalized and limited. The education system in dealing with a number of foreign students? Marginalized.
Oh I admit, there are people there who are university-degreed and fully capable of taking on this task. But it seems like it was their year to slough off and just day-dream. Maybe if you'd had some leader-director-Chancellor to kick butt and fire people.....some things would have had planning and thought attached to them.
The thing about this quote....is that it's not really a "joke". It's a slam against German mentality and the inability to think about consequences. You have some European intellectuals who in various ways dislike German intellectuals. I don't sit around and think much about this, or why there is some ill feelings between the two groups. Maybe one group is made up of mostly rocket scientists while the other is just made of guys who read Chaucer or Hemingway.
Will Germans hate the joke? I think the smart guys....the intellectuals will be a bit angry that they were 'slighted' in this commentary, and that Hillary Clinton was part of the slam on them. Most Germans....the non-intellectuals will listen to the joke, and tell you a better joke....like: “Hell is the place where the English cook, the Italians control the traffic systems and the Germans make TV programs.”
What Will Come to Pass
By the end of last week, there was this bit of news which might have great affect upon Germany. Based on acts done at the climate conference, the talk is now that by 2030 (14 years away), the new market for gas and diesel engine cars will end, period. It'll be strictly electrical/battery-powered cars sold on the new market at that point. Trucks and buses are exempt.....in fact, I kinda doubt that we will ever get either to a stage where they can be removed from the market.
The scene on 1 January 2030? One might sit and imagine what happens.
You walk into a new car lot, and there won't be a single gas or diesel powered car there. Used-car lots? There will be plenty of action and still an active market.
Gas stations? My humble guess is that in a year or two....most major gas station owners in Germany will quietly meet and start a plan to "dump" their stations or run them via out-of-country partners....to lessen the impact upon them at the end. You see....if you have a gas station which is permanently shut down.....you have to dig up the tanks and that cost is upon the owner. I think you will see a lot of foreign partners brought in and assume the position....which they can simply walk away from later.
My guess is that you will already start to see by 2025 a quarter of the stations around Germany shutting down. In the more rural areas where you might have five stations within a 25-mile circle....it'll probably go down to just one or two stations. On the autobahn? They might remain at the same number for a fairly long period, even after 2030.
Pressure is now applied to the public....that you will have no real choice. And as the market decreases for fuel and makes it more difficult to get gas.....you will simply be forced via another angle to comply with the agenda.
Used gas cars? I think there will be a market for these cars for another thirty years as a lot of people just don't believe in the battery-powered car business.
The electric grid? Oddly, you just don't see anyone doing analysis to say what happens to the power structure. There are 61-million cars registered in Germany today. What if 50-million were battery-powered? Could the grid handle them? What of the cost for charging up 50-million cars every single night? Is there simply enough power?
I brought this up to my German wife and asked if we'd have three charging stations (1,700 Euro to get the station that does the four-hour charge versus roughly 500 Euro for the 30-hour charger)....would she as the landlord pay for this? She suggested that she'd just have one charger but I doubt would make the two renters happy.
Will urban dwellers even have stations for apartment renters? In the city of Wiesbaden (280,000), you can figure that 25,000 live in apartments which have no dedicated parking spots so they'd have no place to park the car and get charged. No one has yet spoken to this issue and how you'd invent parking spots and run power to the spots.
A change in society? A lot of people use cars for short trips (300 km in a weekend) to some hotel deal or conference. The issue will be that once you arrive at the hotel or conference in question....will you be able to recharge? If there are 300 people at the conference and only 40 chargers? I doubt that most hotels will offer up more than a dozen charger units (which you will have to pay for).....for 150-odd rooms. At 3AM, you might have to get up to see if you get now find a free charger to get your car charged for 10AM check-out.
I don't see this running that smoothly. From 2030 to 2040.....I see as a pretty chaotic period and a lot of frustrations settling upon most Germans. The clean living crowd may think that they've spent time thinking about this and planning this all out.....but I would suggest otherwise.
The scene on 1 January 2030? One might sit and imagine what happens.
You walk into a new car lot, and there won't be a single gas or diesel powered car there. Used-car lots? There will be plenty of action and still an active market.
Gas stations? My humble guess is that in a year or two....most major gas station owners in Germany will quietly meet and start a plan to "dump" their stations or run them via out-of-country partners....to lessen the impact upon them at the end. You see....if you have a gas station which is permanently shut down.....you have to dig up the tanks and that cost is upon the owner. I think you will see a lot of foreign partners brought in and assume the position....which they can simply walk away from later.
My guess is that you will already start to see by 2025 a quarter of the stations around Germany shutting down. In the more rural areas where you might have five stations within a 25-mile circle....it'll probably go down to just one or two stations. On the autobahn? They might remain at the same number for a fairly long period, even after 2030.
Pressure is now applied to the public....that you will have no real choice. And as the market decreases for fuel and makes it more difficult to get gas.....you will simply be forced via another angle to comply with the agenda.
Used gas cars? I think there will be a market for these cars for another thirty years as a lot of people just don't believe in the battery-powered car business.
The electric grid? Oddly, you just don't see anyone doing analysis to say what happens to the power structure. There are 61-million cars registered in Germany today. What if 50-million were battery-powered? Could the grid handle them? What of the cost for charging up 50-million cars every single night? Is there simply enough power?
I brought this up to my German wife and asked if we'd have three charging stations (1,700 Euro to get the station that does the four-hour charge versus roughly 500 Euro for the 30-hour charger)....would she as the landlord pay for this? She suggested that she'd just have one charger but I doubt would make the two renters happy.
Will urban dwellers even have stations for apartment renters? In the city of Wiesbaden (280,000), you can figure that 25,000 live in apartments which have no dedicated parking spots so they'd have no place to park the car and get charged. No one has yet spoken to this issue and how you'd invent parking spots and run power to the spots.
A change in society? A lot of people use cars for short trips (300 km in a weekend) to some hotel deal or conference. The issue will be that once you arrive at the hotel or conference in question....will you be able to recharge? If there are 300 people at the conference and only 40 chargers? I doubt that most hotels will offer up more than a dozen charger units (which you will have to pay for).....for 150-odd rooms. At 3AM, you might have to get up to see if you get now find a free charger to get your car charged for 10AM check-out.
I don't see this running that smoothly. From 2030 to 2040.....I see as a pretty chaotic period and a lot of frustrations settling upon most Germans. The clean living crowd may think that they've spent time thinking about this and planning this all out.....but I would suggest otherwise.
Friday, October 7, 2016
On the Topic of Emergency Rooms in Germany
Last night, ZDF (public-run) ran a news piece on a spiraling problem in Germany....emergency rooms that are overflowing with customers.
For about eight minutes, they ran through around a dozen patients, and at least twenty doctors and administrators. What they indicate is that there are lots of people who show up now with minor health issues which don't really qualify as emergency situations. So many.....that real patients with life-threatening problems are not being seen in time, and their quality of care is marginalized.
It's the same issue which exists in the US now.
The German answer? What they are quietly discussing is the idea of charging the patient at the door when he enters 20-Euro ($24). Right now, you produce your health insurance card and you get access, with no fee attached.
Would the 20-Euro fee change thing? I doubt it. Most people, except the Hartz-IV (welfare crowd) will pay the money.
But I suspect that this 20-Euro fee is simply to get you to accept the idea, and there's going to be a 60-Euro fee within five years. At 60-Euro....I suspect that 20-percent of the crowd would change their mind and try to see their regular doctor. Maybe by 2025, the fee might even hit 100-Euro, and at least half of the people might react the way you expect.
For about eight minutes, they ran through around a dozen patients, and at least twenty doctors and administrators. What they indicate is that there are lots of people who show up now with minor health issues which don't really qualify as emergency situations. So many.....that real patients with life-threatening problems are not being seen in time, and their quality of care is marginalized.
It's the same issue which exists in the US now.
The German answer? What they are quietly discussing is the idea of charging the patient at the door when he enters 20-Euro ($24). Right now, you produce your health insurance card and you get access, with no fee attached.
Would the 20-Euro fee change thing? I doubt it. Most people, except the Hartz-IV (welfare crowd) will pay the money.
But I suspect that this 20-Euro fee is simply to get you to accept the idea, and there's going to be a 60-Euro fee within five years. At 60-Euro....I suspect that 20-percent of the crowd would change their mind and try to see their regular doctor. Maybe by 2025, the fee might even hit 100-Euro, and at least half of the people might react the way you expect.
Wednesday, October 5, 2016
How to Deal with AfD
I usually don't offer Germans a lot of advice (based on attempted occasions to give my German wife advice). Maybe it's because they are full of "wisdom" (they might claim this) or that they just hate getting advice from an American (just something that bothers them badly).
So, on the topic of how to handle the AfD Party....the anti-immigration party....I would offer these ten pieces of advice.
1. You've obviously run a pretty marginalized immigration, migrant, and refugee program for this significant number of Germans to notice, and have a pretty firm negative opinion. Even those who still support you (whether you are FDP, CDU, CSU, Linke Party, Green Party or SPD)....probably half of your supporters who remained with you....are not that thrilled with your accomplishments now.
So, on the topic of how to handle the AfD Party....the anti-immigration party....I would offer these ten pieces of advice.
1. You've obviously run a pretty marginalized immigration, migrant, and refugee program for this significant number of Germans to notice, and have a pretty firm negative opinion. Even those who still support you (whether you are FDP, CDU, CSU, Linke Party, Green Party or SPD)....probably half of your supporters who remained with you....are not that thrilled with your accomplishments now.
You need to come clean and just admit that there were probably twenty to thirty screw-ups and you really want to start a process of fixing the issues. Truth is hard to swallow but you need to get back on the good side of people.
2. Tell the idiots over at the public-run TV business that they'd best stick with the news and not get back into the propaganda business or throw out more "you must be stupid" talk at the general public. You might want to mention to the public-run TV folks that more than 70-percent of the public questions their ethics and has some doubt about their "news".
3. Go back to the Basic Law and write a correction that identifies different types of visas....for the war refugee, the migrant in search of a job with skills or college, the migrant with no skills or college, and the gays/Christians who might face harassment. Then assign a yearly number to these folks. Once you cross the line....don't accept anymore till next year. If your refugee centers are full....don't accept anymore. If your job-market doesn't have openings, don't get all hyped up to bring people in to be on welfare or Hartz IV.
4. Accept the fact that people can have different opinions and not agree with you.....and that they might vote for another party besides the SPD or CDU.
5. Be honest with the public if your population situation is in dire straits and you will have 65-to-68 million in population by 2035 (down from the 82-million of today). Explain the facts, and make it blunt. A good and controlled immigration program is necessary.
6. Make a blunt appeal across to all migrants and immigrants that crime and misbehavior won't be accepted. If someone has a tendency to repeat bad behavior or crime....deny them their visa and send them home. If they won't go home....put them into a special camp and let them know that the 'cake-walk' is finished and they simply aren't guests any longer.
7. Make migrants applying for visas do it from their home country. Promise to approve or disapprove their case in eight weeks. If approved, give them a plane ticket into Germany. If they just show up in Germany.....deny them any application paperwork until they have returned to their home country. These BAMF folks who grant or deny visas.....if they haven't gotten their act together by this point....you might need to retire some people within the organization.
8. Treat war refugees different from migrants. They deserve special treatment. Migrants don't.
9. Define xenophobia. After you define it.....ask which German mental health specialists over the past year wrote up an individual and identified them with such a phobia. Zero, might get brought up at this point. Ask them for the treatment plan (there aren't any). Ask if this whole xenophobia gimmick was fake, and see everyone grins. If you think you've been over-using the xenophobia thing.....well....yeah, you might have.
10. If you don't want to mess with the nine suggestions I've made.....then accept this suggestion. For you SPD and CDU folks....if you can't get more than 45-percent of the vote between the two of you....then your days of leadership are coming to an end. Look toward the lesser parties to carry the bulk of national politics and agendas. It's a harsh world where you lose public confidence and the lesser parties pick up your frustrated voters. So, find new occupations and ask around at university operations for lecture positions. Don't think about going over to state-run TV....their days might be numbered as well.
Note, I might also suggest that a fresh new Chancellor in 2017 is now a necessity....more or less. Also note.....you've done the manager-Chancellor thing for a good long while now.....I might go and find a leader-Chancellor for the next four years.
Just some advice from a humble observer.
2. Tell the idiots over at the public-run TV business that they'd best stick with the news and not get back into the propaganda business or throw out more "you must be stupid" talk at the general public. You might want to mention to the public-run TV folks that more than 70-percent of the public questions their ethics and has some doubt about their "news".
3. Go back to the Basic Law and write a correction that identifies different types of visas....for the war refugee, the migrant in search of a job with skills or college, the migrant with no skills or college, and the gays/Christians who might face harassment. Then assign a yearly number to these folks. Once you cross the line....don't accept anymore till next year. If your refugee centers are full....don't accept anymore. If your job-market doesn't have openings, don't get all hyped up to bring people in to be on welfare or Hartz IV.
4. Accept the fact that people can have different opinions and not agree with you.....and that they might vote for another party besides the SPD or CDU.
5. Be honest with the public if your population situation is in dire straits and you will have 65-to-68 million in population by 2035 (down from the 82-million of today). Explain the facts, and make it blunt. A good and controlled immigration program is necessary.
6. Make a blunt appeal across to all migrants and immigrants that crime and misbehavior won't be accepted. If someone has a tendency to repeat bad behavior or crime....deny them their visa and send them home. If they won't go home....put them into a special camp and let them know that the 'cake-walk' is finished and they simply aren't guests any longer.
7. Make migrants applying for visas do it from their home country. Promise to approve or disapprove their case in eight weeks. If approved, give them a plane ticket into Germany. If they just show up in Germany.....deny them any application paperwork until they have returned to their home country. These BAMF folks who grant or deny visas.....if they haven't gotten their act together by this point....you might need to retire some people within the organization.
8. Treat war refugees different from migrants. They deserve special treatment. Migrants don't.
9. Define xenophobia. After you define it.....ask which German mental health specialists over the past year wrote up an individual and identified them with such a phobia. Zero, might get brought up at this point. Ask them for the treatment plan (there aren't any). Ask if this whole xenophobia gimmick was fake, and see everyone grins. If you think you've been over-using the xenophobia thing.....well....yeah, you might have.
10. If you don't want to mess with the nine suggestions I've made.....then accept this suggestion. For you SPD and CDU folks....if you can't get more than 45-percent of the vote between the two of you....then your days of leadership are coming to an end. Look toward the lesser parties to carry the bulk of national politics and agendas. It's a harsh world where you lose public confidence and the lesser parties pick up your frustrated voters. So, find new occupations and ask around at university operations for lecture positions. Don't think about going over to state-run TV....their days might be numbered as well.
Note, I might also suggest that a fresh new Chancellor in 2017 is now a necessity....more or less. Also note.....you've done the manager-Chancellor thing for a good long while now.....I might go and find a leader-Chancellor for the next four years.
Just some advice from a humble observer.
Tuesday, October 4, 2016
Unity Day
Yesterday was the Day of German Unity. In German: Tag der Deutschen Einheit. The intended purpose of this public holiday......to celebrate the reunification of East and West Germany.
What happens on Unity Day? Mostly nothing.
German government officials....mostly the upper crust folks of Berlin....will meet in some city to have a fest of sorts....usually some speeches, some opera music, and toasts to each other. State-run TV will feature the event to the public, but I doubt if more than one million Germans (out of 82-million) watch the event.
For the typical average German.....this is the day that you clean your basement....take down wallpaper....visit your kin-folks....etc.
Yes, it is a holiday with minimum value to the typical average German. The national TV folks might run special features to talk about the Wall, the evil DDR government, and how wonderful it was to see the unification of the two "countries". But, to be honest and humble here....no one really thinks much of the holiday.
Before this? You can go back to 2 September 1870 when the Kaiser invented Sedentag....a day to celebrate the victory of the Prussians over the evil French (French were evil in those days....or the public sentiment in Germany was that way). Sedentag was supposed to reference important battle victory during the Prussian-French war.
After Prussia came into the status of "empire" in 1871....some folks sat down and thought about redoing the Sedentag. Oddly, their solution was 18 January to be Sedentag. Reasoning? The Treaty of Frankfurt occurred on this day and it made perfect sense to have a holiday in the coldest period of winter.
In 1919, after the Kaiser has left Germany.....the authorities again sit down and discuss at length having a different day instead of 18 January. Their pick is 18 August....which is the day that the new Constitution was wrapped up and finished.
After the war (starting in 1954), the next national holiday for the nation was set to 17 June.....to celebrate the uprising in East Germany that occurred and to show solidarity with their folks on the other side of the wall. This 17 June holiday worked until 1990.....when they met and made the decision for 3 October.
A lot of shuffling around? Yeah. I think this is one of the weak points of Germany. What you take away from this is that a number of political folks often meet, have a few beers, and discuss at length the need to change a holiday or update a holiday. The odds that 3 October will remain? I'd say it's a fifty-fifty chance that it'll be tossed within twenty-five years and another national holiday will be put into place.
So, when you are visiting a German associate on 3 October and expecting some fireworks, or patriotic marches....don't be surprised if they are replanting their sod, doing fall-clean-up, or changing the oil in their car. It's just not that big of a deal.
What happens on Unity Day? Mostly nothing.
German government officials....mostly the upper crust folks of Berlin....will meet in some city to have a fest of sorts....usually some speeches, some opera music, and toasts to each other. State-run TV will feature the event to the public, but I doubt if more than one million Germans (out of 82-million) watch the event.
For the typical average German.....this is the day that you clean your basement....take down wallpaper....visit your kin-folks....etc.
Yes, it is a holiday with minimum value to the typical average German. The national TV folks might run special features to talk about the Wall, the evil DDR government, and how wonderful it was to see the unification of the two "countries". But, to be honest and humble here....no one really thinks much of the holiday.
Before this? You can go back to 2 September 1870 when the Kaiser invented Sedentag....a day to celebrate the victory of the Prussians over the evil French (French were evil in those days....or the public sentiment in Germany was that way). Sedentag was supposed to reference important battle victory during the Prussian-French war.
After Prussia came into the status of "empire" in 1871....some folks sat down and thought about redoing the Sedentag. Oddly, their solution was 18 January to be Sedentag. Reasoning? The Treaty of Frankfurt occurred on this day and it made perfect sense to have a holiday in the coldest period of winter.
In 1919, after the Kaiser has left Germany.....the authorities again sit down and discuss at length having a different day instead of 18 January. Their pick is 18 August....which is the day that the new Constitution was wrapped up and finished.
After the war (starting in 1954), the next national holiday for the nation was set to 17 June.....to celebrate the uprising in East Germany that occurred and to show solidarity with their folks on the other side of the wall. This 17 June holiday worked until 1990.....when they met and made the decision for 3 October.
A lot of shuffling around? Yeah. I think this is one of the weak points of Germany. What you take away from this is that a number of political folks often meet, have a few beers, and discuss at length the need to change a holiday or update a holiday. The odds that 3 October will remain? I'd say it's a fifty-fifty chance that it'll be tossed within twenty-five years and another national holiday will be put into place.
So, when you are visiting a German associate on 3 October and expecting some fireworks, or patriotic marches....don't be surprised if they are replanting their sod, doing fall-clean-up, or changing the oil in their car. It's just not that big of a deal.
Monday, October 3, 2016
Germanized Islam?
Over the weekend.....German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble....made a comment which will drive a lot of Germans (and others) to discuss his idea....that you can assimilate a million Muslims who've arrived in Germany and develop a Germanized Islam, which is based on tolerance and liberalism.
Some would suggest that Schaeuble was pulling your leg when he made this comment. Some might say that he's being awful naive. Some might suggest that it's a fairly crazy idea.
How would you accomplish this?
You'd have to go and do some type of 'rewrite' of the Quran and the two associated documents. It's basically said that it's forbidden to alter these three books, so I think it'd end up being an underground-type project where suddenly the three books appear in digital form, with a major editing process which edits out the "death-to-non-believers" theme.
Then you'd have to have some 'insiders' who are liberalized to some degree and the German door open as a way to modernize their religion and reinvent it for the modern era.....rather than have handcuffed to the 7th Century.
Then the Mullah issue comes up. Oddly, Germany has started a university project to get Germanized individuals headed in the direction of being degreed Islam Mullahs and fairly educated (in order to get any degree in Germany....it requires a fair amount of class-work and projects). The intention is within ten years....there won't be any more deals where you import Saudi Mullahs to run Mosques in Germany.
Why should one think this radical idea would work? Well....history has this odd theme.
When the Romans got to the point of entering Middle East.....they found one particular group almost impossible to conquer....the Jews.
In most cases, when the Romans entered a land.....just having 300 to 1,000 Roman soldiers was enough to scare a city into surrendering or accepting Roman rule. If things did escalate to a larger degree, then troops would enter into a campaign and quickly establish authority, with the locals generally scared.
The Jews were a different group entirely. They had established their religion on a great deal of faith. The leaders of the religion had the mass of Jewish society in Judea strongly attached. The Romans weren't easily accepted, even with force.
So, eventually after countless battles and analyzing the Jews to a great extent, the Romans came to some belief that you needed to "water-down" the Jewish faith. Up until this point, the Bible that did exist at the time....was strictly the Old Testament. After the Roman's perception of the situation....you then start to have an effort for the kinder and gentler version of the Jewish religion....the Christian religion.
If you go through the New Testament, there are dozens of highlights where it's suggested that acceptance of the Roman authority is a positive thing. Jews and their old method of viewing things were cast in a negative light. People were drawn to the Christian religion because of it's positive virtues. People were drawn away from the Jewish religion because of its harsh nature.
My guess is that the Germans are thinking along the lines of the Romans, and thinking long-term....you can liberalize and change a religion....in a sly sort of way.
I'm not going to suggest this is a wise idea or one that will be successful in the end. But the Romans weren't naive or stupid, and I think the Germans may have come to realize the trick could easily work again.
Some would suggest that Schaeuble was pulling your leg when he made this comment. Some might say that he's being awful naive. Some might suggest that it's a fairly crazy idea.
How would you accomplish this?
You'd have to go and do some type of 'rewrite' of the Quran and the two associated documents. It's basically said that it's forbidden to alter these three books, so I think it'd end up being an underground-type project where suddenly the three books appear in digital form, with a major editing process which edits out the "death-to-non-believers" theme.
Then you'd have to have some 'insiders' who are liberalized to some degree and the German door open as a way to modernize their religion and reinvent it for the modern era.....rather than have handcuffed to the 7th Century.
Then the Mullah issue comes up. Oddly, Germany has started a university project to get Germanized individuals headed in the direction of being degreed Islam Mullahs and fairly educated (in order to get any degree in Germany....it requires a fair amount of class-work and projects). The intention is within ten years....there won't be any more deals where you import Saudi Mullahs to run Mosques in Germany.
Why should one think this radical idea would work? Well....history has this odd theme.
When the Romans got to the point of entering Middle East.....they found one particular group almost impossible to conquer....the Jews.
In most cases, when the Romans entered a land.....just having 300 to 1,000 Roman soldiers was enough to scare a city into surrendering or accepting Roman rule. If things did escalate to a larger degree, then troops would enter into a campaign and quickly establish authority, with the locals generally scared.
The Jews were a different group entirely. They had established their religion on a great deal of faith. The leaders of the religion had the mass of Jewish society in Judea strongly attached. The Romans weren't easily accepted, even with force.
So, eventually after countless battles and analyzing the Jews to a great extent, the Romans came to some belief that you needed to "water-down" the Jewish faith. Up until this point, the Bible that did exist at the time....was strictly the Old Testament. After the Roman's perception of the situation....you then start to have an effort for the kinder and gentler version of the Jewish religion....the Christian religion.
If you go through the New Testament, there are dozens of highlights where it's suggested that acceptance of the Roman authority is a positive thing. Jews and their old method of viewing things were cast in a negative light. People were drawn to the Christian religion because of it's positive virtues. People were drawn away from the Jewish religion because of its harsh nature.
My guess is that the Germans are thinking along the lines of the Romans, and thinking long-term....you can liberalize and change a religion....in a sly sort of way.
I'm not going to suggest this is a wise idea or one that will be successful in the end. But the Romans weren't naive or stupid, and I think the Germans may have come to realize the trick could easily work again.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)