There's an odd financial discussion going on, and was reported by the British newspaper 'Telegraph' today....concerning the German financial situation.
The accusation being discussed is that Germany MIGHT be hiding the actual size of it's trade surplus (it'd be a shock if this were true), and that the true amount might be as much as 80-billion Euro MORE.
Who makes the suggestion? Professor Heiner Flassbeck....a former state-secretary of finance, and now a Hamburg University professor.
So you sit and pause over this. Why would Germany go and mask 80-billion Euro? It would greatly change the GDP, and cause European neighbors to be aggravated over the competitive nature of German industry. It would also force the Merkel government to concede that the NATO rule on 2-percent GDP spending is a more significant problem.
The odds of hiding something like this? I sat and pondered upon.
First, most companies really don't care to advertise their numbers much....but they have to file tax paperwork and admit profits or losses. The government would capture that data.
Second, in the old days, these financial reports were fairly simple, but there are various ways that you could sit and report things (both by the companies, and by the government) and have money sitting in some dark corner of the 'room'. I admit...80-billion Euro being hid....is a lot.
Third, if this came out.....some German bureaucrat angry with the system or Merkel's economics plan, then it'd launch a huge investigation and various members of the EU would be terribly upset. It'd also mean that the Germans didn't send the correct tax-revenue to the EU.
I'm mostly shaking my head over this. It's a serious story, if true. I'm more likely to believe the true amount is NOT 80-billion Euro, and that it's more like five to ten billion Euro. The question is....do you suggest an independent audit of the German government? I just don't see that happening.
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Tuesday, January 30, 2018
The Fake Leaflet Story
This is a page three story and an example of how Germans tend to be naive.
Here in the state of Hessen....we have the major city of Giessen (a university town). About a week ago....some leaflets started to show up around Giessen....noting that the regional bus and tram service was going to offer 'FREE' public transportation for nine days.
The leaflet? Well....it looks like an official leaflet that the public transportation system would put out. The problem is....it's FAKE.
Folks around Giessen actually looked at the leaflet and believed it. Folks found the leaflet in public places....in their mailboxes....etc.
The fact that none of this was advertised by the city, the bus service, or via public TV/radio? Well....you would think that thought would have come up. But leaflet was done pretty professional and had the various logos of the city, utilities, the local university, and the innovation district of Marktquarter.
Affecting folks? Well...a fair number of folks have tried riding the buses and railway service, and discovered when the audit folks came up....that there is no free ride, and are facing a 60-Euro fine. Whether or not the city will dismiss the fines or not.....is not clear (they usually don't).
Who made it? Unknown. It has to be a pretty good graphic artist, with a sense of humor. My guess is that its someone connected to the university.
The thing is....it readily proves that Germans are fully capable of falling for fake news or fake advertising.
A one of a kind? No....I have doubts. Whoever did this....has figured out that they have an enormous amount of capability and could raise more doubts with the public.
Here in the state of Hessen....we have the major city of Giessen (a university town). About a week ago....some leaflets started to show up around Giessen....noting that the regional bus and tram service was going to offer 'FREE' public transportation for nine days.
The leaflet? Well....it looks like an official leaflet that the public transportation system would put out. The problem is....it's FAKE.
Folks around Giessen actually looked at the leaflet and believed it. Folks found the leaflet in public places....in their mailboxes....etc.
The fact that none of this was advertised by the city, the bus service, or via public TV/radio? Well....you would think that thought would have come up. But leaflet was done pretty professional and had the various logos of the city, utilities, the local university, and the innovation district of Marktquarter.
Affecting folks? Well...a fair number of folks have tried riding the buses and railway service, and discovered when the audit folks came up....that there is no free ride, and are facing a 60-Euro fine. Whether or not the city will dismiss the fines or not.....is not clear (they usually don't).
Who made it? Unknown. It has to be a pretty good graphic artist, with a sense of humor. My guess is that its someone connected to the university.
The thing is....it readily proves that Germans are fully capable of falling for fake news or fake advertising.
A one of a kind? No....I have doubts. Whoever did this....has figured out that they have an enormous amount of capability and could raise more doubts with the public.
Monday, January 29, 2018
More Lab Tests Story
I kinda thought this whole topic of diesel testing on monkeys last week by the German-makers and a US lab would just come to an end. But today, there's another odd aspect to diesel fume testing. This time...on humans.
The EUGT lobby group (supported by Mercedes, VW, BMW), ended up in a short-term (only a few weeks) test, with 19 guys and 6 gals. Why an unequal number is unknown.
All were presumed healthy prior to the test. They were basically hired out to go and do a short-term sniff/inhalation type study with nitrogen dioxide being introduced into their bodies.
According to WDR (regional public network), they got an exposure to diesel fumes once a week for three hours. No one says why three hours was the magic number. It might have been more legit to do this for one hour per day, continuously for two to four weeks....which would have had the effect of a common guy on the street of some urban center. But that doesn't seem to be the goal here.
Some reaction by the carmakers? Well....yeah, the VW CEO said this was all wrong and unethical.
Who ran this test? Well....in this case, they didn't go to an American lab....they went to a German clinic associated with the University of Aachen (Germany).
Meanwhile, the big explanation behind the test? Well....its said that this was mostly to show some numbers relating to car-mechanics.
All of this has now apparently stirred up a bunch ethical charges that test on monkeys was awful bad, but testing on humans was double-bad.
I paused over all of this hyper-talk by journalists and politicians. You kinda get the impression that while diesel and gas cars have been around for a hundred years or more....no one has ever gone and done much testing on fumes, period. I'm not saying this about just the Germans but across the whole board.
The twenty-five Germans in this diesel test? No one says much but one would assume they are perfectly OK and without any health issues. This might push someone to ask if the big worry of diesel particles is fraudulent in some way....but then you have to wonder if these were altered cars and the test ended up with fake results. Yeah, I am a bit skeptical here.
The end of this story? I think you will see a flurry of German law changes that some national board will have to approve all human or monkey tests in the future....making it just about impossible to do medical tests, and most researchers going to outside country to get lab testing done.
The EUGT lobby group (supported by Mercedes, VW, BMW), ended up in a short-term (only a few weeks) test, with 19 guys and 6 gals. Why an unequal number is unknown.
All were presumed healthy prior to the test. They were basically hired out to go and do a short-term sniff/inhalation type study with nitrogen dioxide being introduced into their bodies.
According to WDR (regional public network), they got an exposure to diesel fumes once a week for three hours. No one says why three hours was the magic number. It might have been more legit to do this for one hour per day, continuously for two to four weeks....which would have had the effect of a common guy on the street of some urban center. But that doesn't seem to be the goal here.
Some reaction by the carmakers? Well....yeah, the VW CEO said this was all wrong and unethical.
Who ran this test? Well....in this case, they didn't go to an American lab....they went to a German clinic associated with the University of Aachen (Germany).
Meanwhile, the big explanation behind the test? Well....its said that this was mostly to show some numbers relating to car-mechanics.
All of this has now apparently stirred up a bunch ethical charges that test on monkeys was awful bad, but testing on humans was double-bad.
I paused over all of this hyper-talk by journalists and politicians. You kinda get the impression that while diesel and gas cars have been around for a hundred years or more....no one has ever gone and done much testing on fumes, period. I'm not saying this about just the Germans but across the whole board.
The twenty-five Germans in this diesel test? No one says much but one would assume they are perfectly OK and without any health issues. This might push someone to ask if the big worry of diesel particles is fraudulent in some way....but then you have to wonder if these were altered cars and the test ended up with fake results. Yeah, I am a bit skeptical here.
The end of this story? I think you will see a flurry of German law changes that some national board will have to approve all human or monkey tests in the future....making it just about impossible to do medical tests, and most researchers going to outside country to get lab testing done.
Sunday, January 28, 2018
More on the Monkey Story
I essayed a few days ago about this diesel test conducted in the US with German diesel brands (VW, BMW, Mercedes,etc), which a German lobby group paid the US company to research the affects of diesel fumes on monkeys. The story goes (at that time) that the cars were put into a sealed room, ran for a few hours, and the monkeys in the sealed room all survived (this would be four years now, if all true). The suggestion is that the monkeys simply weren't that affected.
Well....the Daily Mail out of the UK added a curious piece today to this story. They say....that the test with the diesel cars....was conducted in a flawed way. The test was apparently (if their article is true) in a way that only lesser effects of the diesel exhaust business were pumped at the monkeys. Even in this episode....things were manipulated enough to ensure the better output.
The positive of this story? Well....the lobby group never published the results of the study. It appears more by accident now that the bits and pieces of this story got out.
Well....the Daily Mail out of the UK added a curious piece today to this story. They say....that the test with the diesel cars....was conducted in a flawed way. The test was apparently (if their article is true) in a way that only lesser effects of the diesel exhaust business were pumped at the monkeys. Even in this episode....things were manipulated enough to ensure the better output.
The positive of this story? Well....the lobby group never published the results of the study. It appears more by accident now that the bits and pieces of this story got out.
The Haircut Story
If you bring it up with German Army members....most will grin and tell you the minor benefit that they have....with free haircuts.
The German government pays roughly half-a-million Euro a year....to operate sixty-seven barber-shops or salons for military folks. Free haircuts are the result.
Historically, I think you can go all the way back to the Prussian Army and show that they also provided free haircuts.
Well....this weekend, it came up and the audit folks for the government have asked that this benefit be shut down....suggesting within five years.
Reaction by the military folks? Not much has been said.
Haircuts in Germany aren't necessarily cheap. Most shops will charge a minimum of 12 Euro ($14 to $15 US dollars) for a guy's haircut.
The benefit here was that you had this shop on your post and you could ask 'Sarge' every three to four weeks to give you an extra half-an-hour for lunch and get your haircut. If this is implemented, you'd have to go off-post.
Will it occur? I have my doubts. This is simply a suggestion by the audit crowd, and you would think that they'd be in Stuttgart looking at the railway project, or in Berlin looking at the airport project....to find wasteful government spending.
The German government pays roughly half-a-million Euro a year....to operate sixty-seven barber-shops or salons for military folks. Free haircuts are the result.
Historically, I think you can go all the way back to the Prussian Army and show that they also provided free haircuts.
Well....this weekend, it came up and the audit folks for the government have asked that this benefit be shut down....suggesting within five years.
Reaction by the military folks? Not much has been said.
Haircuts in Germany aren't necessarily cheap. Most shops will charge a minimum of 12 Euro ($14 to $15 US dollars) for a guy's haircut.
The benefit here was that you had this shop on your post and you could ask 'Sarge' every three to four weeks to give you an extra half-an-hour for lunch and get your haircut. If this is implemented, you'd have to go off-post.
Will it occur? I have my doubts. This is simply a suggestion by the audit crowd, and you would think that they'd be in Stuttgart looking at the railway project, or in Berlin looking at the airport project....to find wasteful government spending.
German National Parks
Across Germany today, there are a total of sixteen (16) national parks. If you asked most Germans, they'd probably tell you there are a minimum of forty of these, but it's often confused with the fact that there are roughly one-hundred nature-parks....a totally different category.
The list?
1. The Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park....up on the northwestern coast of Germany. With 4,400 square kilometers, it's the largest of the sixteen, and was started in the mid-1980s.
2. The Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park....is a fairly small area, and adjacent to Hamburg-City. It was started in the early-1990s. Size-wise, it's just over 50 square kilometers. A good 3-minute video at the link I posted.
3. The Lower Saxon Wadden Sea National Park was noted in the mid-1980s and is around 350 square kilometers. The best description of the area is a collection of marshes along the north coast.
4. Jasmund National Park was official in 1990, and is fairly small at 30 square kilometers. It's on one end of Rugen Island, and it's chalk cliffs are what drive most folks to visit.
5. Western Pomerania Lagoon National Park is on the far eastern coastal region of Germany, and was official in 1990. Size-wise, it's 805 square kilometers. It would be best described as a collection of lagoons and sandy beaches.
6. Muritz National Park rests between Berlin and Rostock, and was noted existing in 1990. It's size is about 300 square kilometers. A good description of the park? A blend of lake property, forest, and swamp.
7. Lower Oder Valley National Park rests along the German and Polish border....and actually is a joint park between the two countries. Size? Around 1,100 square kilometers. It's been around since 1990, and the best description here would be a fairly flat open plain.
8. The Harz National Park started out in 1990, and has about 250 square kilometers of space. It's best description (sitting on the eastern side of Germany), would be a collection of forests and some swamp-like areas. With the link I posted, a good four-minute video of the Harz Park.
9. Kellerwald-Edersee National Park. Started in 2004, it's located in Hessen (central Germany), and has around 60 square kilometers of space. A good description of this area is forest and lake-property.
10. Hainich National Park started in 1997, and is a total of 75 square kilometers. It's a unique park dedicated toward a Burch forest, and has a unique walking trail built above the trees. Oddly, part of this park was originally a military training area.
11. The Eifel National Park. It's located on the far western end of Germany, near Aachen. It started out in 2004, and was also a military training site (used by NATO). You often see documentary pieces done with hikers in this area, and it's one of the more walking sites in Germany. On the link, I posted, a good 90 second video of the park.
12. The Hunsruck-Hochwald National Park is only three years old, and the newest of the parks. It's mostly a wooded area with open fields in the mix, with hiking trails. It's near the Bitburg region (far west side of the country). On the link I posted, a good 90 second video of the park.
13. The Saxon Switzerland National Park started out in 1990, and has about 95 square kilometers. It's on the far east side....near Dresden. The best description here is rocky canyons with forests in abundance. Hiking-wise, it's a place where you need to be in good shape and anticipate a bit of sweat. With the link I posted, a good four-minute video of the park.
14. The Bavarian Forest National Park was the first national park (1970) and rests near Mauth, in the far southeast.
15. The Berchtesgaden National Park is the second national park of Germany (1978) and is just outside of Berchtesgaden itself. Size? 278 square kilometers. It's often mentioned in travel documentary pieces and fairly popular with hikers.
16. The Black Forest National Park. Started in 2014, it's the only such park in the southwestern region of Germany. Oddly, it came to an intense argument over the use of the property in terms of political bickering. The CDU/FDP folks in the region backed the timber industry which wanted to limit the project, and the Greens/SPD went for full scale project. It is a 100 square kilometers in size and mostly all forest.
Cost to enter a German national park? Nothing. Well....at least at this point, it's still zero. Unlike the US effort to commercialize parks, you don't typically see much of that angle. You will find signs, picnic tables, and hiking trails. There are no hotels or restaurants associated with the parks.
If you asked most working-class Germans if they've ever been to one of the sixteen parks...I would take a guess that more than half would say 'no'. I've been to one of the parks....the Saxon Switzerland Park near Dresden (which I'd highly recommend but caution against hiking).
The list?
1. The Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park....up on the northwestern coast of Germany. With 4,400 square kilometers, it's the largest of the sixteen, and was started in the mid-1980s.
2. The Hamburg Wadden Sea National Park....is a fairly small area, and adjacent to Hamburg-City. It was started in the early-1990s. Size-wise, it's just over 50 square kilometers. A good 3-minute video at the link I posted.
3. The Lower Saxon Wadden Sea National Park was noted in the mid-1980s and is around 350 square kilometers. The best description of the area is a collection of marshes along the north coast.
4. Jasmund National Park was official in 1990, and is fairly small at 30 square kilometers. It's on one end of Rugen Island, and it's chalk cliffs are what drive most folks to visit.
5. Western Pomerania Lagoon National Park is on the far eastern coastal region of Germany, and was official in 1990. Size-wise, it's 805 square kilometers. It would be best described as a collection of lagoons and sandy beaches.
6. Muritz National Park rests between Berlin and Rostock, and was noted existing in 1990. It's size is about 300 square kilometers. A good description of the park? A blend of lake property, forest, and swamp.
7. Lower Oder Valley National Park rests along the German and Polish border....and actually is a joint park between the two countries. Size? Around 1,100 square kilometers. It's been around since 1990, and the best description here would be a fairly flat open plain.
8. The Harz National Park started out in 1990, and has about 250 square kilometers of space. It's best description (sitting on the eastern side of Germany), would be a collection of forests and some swamp-like areas. With the link I posted, a good four-minute video of the Harz Park.
9. Kellerwald-Edersee National Park. Started in 2004, it's located in Hessen (central Germany), and has around 60 square kilometers of space. A good description of this area is forest and lake-property.
10. Hainich National Park started in 1997, and is a total of 75 square kilometers. It's a unique park dedicated toward a Burch forest, and has a unique walking trail built above the trees. Oddly, part of this park was originally a military training area.
11. The Eifel National Park. It's located on the far western end of Germany, near Aachen. It started out in 2004, and was also a military training site (used by NATO). You often see documentary pieces done with hikers in this area, and it's one of the more walking sites in Germany. On the link, I posted, a good 90 second video of the park.
12. The Hunsruck-Hochwald National Park is only three years old, and the newest of the parks. It's mostly a wooded area with open fields in the mix, with hiking trails. It's near the Bitburg region (far west side of the country). On the link I posted, a good 90 second video of the park.
13. The Saxon Switzerland National Park started out in 1990, and has about 95 square kilometers. It's on the far east side....near Dresden. The best description here is rocky canyons with forests in abundance. Hiking-wise, it's a place where you need to be in good shape and anticipate a bit of sweat. With the link I posted, a good four-minute video of the park.
14. The Bavarian Forest National Park was the first national park (1970) and rests near Mauth, in the far southeast.
15. The Berchtesgaden National Park is the second national park of Germany (1978) and is just outside of Berchtesgaden itself. Size? 278 square kilometers. It's often mentioned in travel documentary pieces and fairly popular with hikers.
16. The Black Forest National Park. Started in 2014, it's the only such park in the southwestern region of Germany. Oddly, it came to an intense argument over the use of the property in terms of political bickering. The CDU/FDP folks in the region backed the timber industry which wanted to limit the project, and the Greens/SPD went for full scale project. It is a 100 square kilometers in size and mostly all forest.
Cost to enter a German national park? Nothing. Well....at least at this point, it's still zero. Unlike the US effort to commercialize parks, you don't typically see much of that angle. You will find signs, picnic tables, and hiking trails. There are no hotels or restaurants associated with the parks.
If you asked most working-class Germans if they've ever been to one of the sixteen parks...I would take a guess that more than half would say 'no'. I've been to one of the parks....the Saxon Switzerland Park near Dresden (which I'd highly recommend but caution against hiking).
Games 'Kids' Play
It's a fairly stupid discussion, but German public TV....Channel One (ARD)....stepped into another mess, intentionally.
US President Donald Trump went to Davos and delivered a speech. You can go to YouTube and listen to it. Note, this version is the unaltered version.
So, we come to this amusing and juvenile-like game that ARD played. With multiple mics spread around the room...the game was played this way. Shockingly enough....applause came with various Trump comments. Even CNN noted this and felt absolutely shocked that learned individuals and people interested in economics....applauded Trump. Patiently, ARD waited and then a few boos occurred.
On the unaltered version of the video, you do barely hear them, and it's a minor deal. On ARD's version....played to the German public, the boo-level is pumped up. At some point during the day, as this tape is played over and over for the ARD news audience....people went and compared the sound levels and then came back to ask ARD questions, and criticize the juvenile behavior.
The crew in charge of the ARD coverage at Davos? The Tagesschau folks....the late-night news team.
Tagesschau came back later to defend itself....saying 'yes'....they made the sound from certain corners of the room and pumped up the sound to a higher level. Then they state their position: "Only in this way can we reflect what our correspondents have reported. The microphone in the room was mostly recorded by Trump and little of the atmosphere in the hall. "
At some point in the Twitter criticism that followed....it became a curious jab at ARD. The comment that triggered the boos centered around 'fake news', and Trump had made another statement dumping on fake news. Someone by the name of neythoas on Twitter then leveled a five-star blast at ARD...."Do you notice something else? You confirm exactly what Trump accuses you all. "
The Tagesschau then stood around defended various blasts coming from Germans, who note that they are fairly fed-up with the public TV news department. As Tagesschau did note correctly....you have newspapers who often go and use a color-filtered or particular photo to demonstrate some negative aspect on some individual. So it's within the right of Tagesschau's journalists to perform the same type 'trick'.
I sat and paused over this journalistic battle that ensued. Yes, boos did occur....on most all recordings....a handful were noted. The idea that more than half the audience uttered a boo? No...it's probably six to ten individuals. I looked at the video of the room and would judge there were a minimum of 500 folks sitting there.
As for ARD and the Tagesschau team? The juvenile game played out actually made them more of the news, than the Trump speech itself. If you alter the sound or image, is that factual or altered news? Is it fake news or manipulated news? Where else does manipulation occur on a frequent basis? This drives the general public to question the ethics of the journalists.
In a way, this little visit by Trump and a 30-minute speech to a room of dull economic experts....has set up a confrontation with the German public and ARD's Tagesschau crew. It was a simple game that Tagesschau wanted to play, and they got caught....oddly, they desperately want to defend their game....which only makes the frustration of the public that much worse.
US President Donald Trump went to Davos and delivered a speech. You can go to YouTube and listen to it. Note, this version is the unaltered version.
So, we come to this amusing and juvenile-like game that ARD played. With multiple mics spread around the room...the game was played this way. Shockingly enough....applause came with various Trump comments. Even CNN noted this and felt absolutely shocked that learned individuals and people interested in economics....applauded Trump. Patiently, ARD waited and then a few boos occurred.
On the unaltered version of the video, you do barely hear them, and it's a minor deal. On ARD's version....played to the German public, the boo-level is pumped up. At some point during the day, as this tape is played over and over for the ARD news audience....people went and compared the sound levels and then came back to ask ARD questions, and criticize the juvenile behavior.
The crew in charge of the ARD coverage at Davos? The Tagesschau folks....the late-night news team.
Tagesschau came back later to defend itself....saying 'yes'....they made the sound from certain corners of the room and pumped up the sound to a higher level. Then they state their position: "Only in this way can we reflect what our correspondents have reported. The microphone in the room was mostly recorded by Trump and little of the atmosphere in the hall. "
At some point in the Twitter criticism that followed....it became a curious jab at ARD. The comment that triggered the boos centered around 'fake news', and Trump had made another statement dumping on fake news. Someone by the name of neythoas on Twitter then leveled a five-star blast at ARD...."Do you notice something else? You confirm exactly what Trump accuses you all. "
The Tagesschau then stood around defended various blasts coming from Germans, who note that they are fairly fed-up with the public TV news department. As Tagesschau did note correctly....you have newspapers who often go and use a color-filtered or particular photo to demonstrate some negative aspect on some individual. So it's within the right of Tagesschau's journalists to perform the same type 'trick'.
I sat and paused over this journalistic battle that ensued. Yes, boos did occur....on most all recordings....a handful were noted. The idea that more than half the audience uttered a boo? No...it's probably six to ten individuals. I looked at the video of the room and would judge there were a minimum of 500 folks sitting there.
As for ARD and the Tagesschau team? The juvenile game played out actually made them more of the news, than the Trump speech itself. If you alter the sound or image, is that factual or altered news? Is it fake news or manipulated news? Where else does manipulation occur on a frequent basis? This drives the general public to question the ethics of the journalists.
In a way, this little visit by Trump and a 30-minute speech to a room of dull economic experts....has set up a confrontation with the German public and ARD's Tagesschau crew. It was a simple game that Tagesschau wanted to play, and they got caught....oddly, they desperately want to defend their game....which only makes the frustration of the public that much worse.
Saturday, January 27, 2018
The Bra Show Topic
About ten days ago, I essayed the brief story of KiKa....Germany's young-kid public TV channel, and some reality show that had a 15-year old German girl and some foreign young man in some relationship. The fact that the network was designed for the 3 to 13 year old group in Germany....a fair number of Germans got whiny about the documentary and felt it was the wrong place to air a topic like this.
Well...KiKa got back into the news late this week with another challenging program.
The topic this time? They had a show which led to some ten to thirteen year old young boys taking on the subject of noticing boobs, boob sizes, and that all sizes are normal. At some point, the boys use a mannequin and go through the procedure of unhooking the bra to the dummy-gal. Oddly (you just kinda why)....all three of the young guys were non-white Germanic kids...looking...well...Syrian or Iraqi. Maybe there was no real intent and they just picked three young guys at random.
Amusing enough, several women's groups stood up and asked 'what the heck is going on here', and suggested that the video production could promote sexual assault and objectification of the female body.
Naturally, most of the commentary by ARD/ZDF was defensive in nature....yet oddly....they removed the video from the network library.
There are three things at work here, if you haven't figured that out.
1. The German media system has assumed a role in educating or dragging cultural groups into a progressive society. They've got pressure from the political leadership and the intellectual side to help bridge this vast divide and bring a number of people into a fairly progressive lifestyle. The landscape is vast, and 'shock-like' documentary pieces are part of the solution.
2. KiKa was designed in the mid-1990s to be a network for German kids (age three to thirteen). Various arguments exist over what's on the network today, and that maybe it needs to be split off into two networks....one for the really young crowd (say three to six years old), and one for the next step up (seven to twelve years old). No one ever cites who watches it although the claim is that the market share is 1.2 percent (2013 numbers). My humble guess is that it's mostly three to six year old kids watching, and very few kids above eight years old watch the shows.
3. There's a whole bunch of young migrant and immigrants kids who've come into Germany over the past four years and things are fairly different from the old country. How do you reach them and make them into German kids? Yeah....this question really hasn't been asked in public forums and it's obvious that a path has to be created. KiKa has to fill the role...whether they like it or not.
The end to this issue? No. There's probably going to be a committee meeting and some questions asked. Someone will appoint a monitor over the planning stage and try to stop them from doing stupid things that the public will complain about. Maybe someone will wise up and suggest splitting the network into two divisions, and create a second channel just for 'teenies'.
Well...KiKa got back into the news late this week with another challenging program.
The topic this time? They had a show which led to some ten to thirteen year old young boys taking on the subject of noticing boobs, boob sizes, and that all sizes are normal. At some point, the boys use a mannequin and go through the procedure of unhooking the bra to the dummy-gal. Oddly (you just kinda why)....all three of the young guys were non-white Germanic kids...looking...well...Syrian or Iraqi. Maybe there was no real intent and they just picked three young guys at random.
Amusing enough, several women's groups stood up and asked 'what the heck is going on here', and suggested that the video production could promote sexual assault and objectification of the female body.
Naturally, most of the commentary by ARD/ZDF was defensive in nature....yet oddly....they removed the video from the network library.
There are three things at work here, if you haven't figured that out.
1. The German media system has assumed a role in educating or dragging cultural groups into a progressive society. They've got pressure from the political leadership and the intellectual side to help bridge this vast divide and bring a number of people into a fairly progressive lifestyle. The landscape is vast, and 'shock-like' documentary pieces are part of the solution.
2. KiKa was designed in the mid-1990s to be a network for German kids (age three to thirteen). Various arguments exist over what's on the network today, and that maybe it needs to be split off into two networks....one for the really young crowd (say three to six years old), and one for the next step up (seven to twelve years old). No one ever cites who watches it although the claim is that the market share is 1.2 percent (2013 numbers). My humble guess is that it's mostly three to six year old kids watching, and very few kids above eight years old watch the shows.
3. There's a whole bunch of young migrant and immigrants kids who've come into Germany over the past four years and things are fairly different from the old country. How do you reach them and make them into German kids? Yeah....this question really hasn't been asked in public forums and it's obvious that a path has to be created. KiKa has to fill the role...whether they like it or not.
The end to this issue? No. There's probably going to be a committee meeting and some questions asked. Someone will appoint a monitor over the planning stage and try to stop them from doing stupid things that the public will complain about. Maybe someone will wise up and suggest splitting the network into two divisions, and create a second channel just for 'teenies'.
The Diesel Monkey Story
It's a page one story in Germany which you read over and just shake your head.
So, basically....the German car-makers knew that their diesel cars were putting out a fair amount of deadly fumes. The extent or amount? Unknown. So they went and hired a US lab company to go and test the German-made diesel cars in a sealed room with monkeys present, and get a dose of four hours of fumes.
Ten monkeys were said to be in the test.....all said to still be living today.
This came out via court and government documents this week.
All of this led back to the idea suggested at the time that it would prove that modern advancements in technology were a good thing and helping the general public against toxic diesel fumes.
Who funded this? Oddly, it comes from EUGT (European Research Association for Environment and Health in the Transport Sector)....who serves as a lobby group for Volkswagen, Mercedes and BMW.
Did the car-makers really know about or understand the test being conducted? This is something that is not clear from news media. I think it's possible that they were simply told that tests would be conducted and weren't aware that monkeys were involved.
All of this brings up the hyped-up commentary by various pro-animal groups as sounding.....well.....Nazi-like in experimentation. But if the statement that the monkeys are still alive today....four years later, then it means that the filter system mostly worked and maybe the serious nature of diesel business is not so bad.
For the car-makers, this story comes out pretty negative and kinda suggests that they were already worried about the direction of the new diesel technology and that it wasn't meeting the goals. The odd thing here is that they didn't do the experimentation in Europe....they did this in a US lab. One might wonder why it had to be done in the US but that's probably another entire story attached.
So, basically....the German car-makers knew that their diesel cars were putting out a fair amount of deadly fumes. The extent or amount? Unknown. So they went and hired a US lab company to go and test the German-made diesel cars in a sealed room with monkeys present, and get a dose of four hours of fumes.
Ten monkeys were said to be in the test.....all said to still be living today.
This came out via court and government documents this week.
All of this led back to the idea suggested at the time that it would prove that modern advancements in technology were a good thing and helping the general public against toxic diesel fumes.
Who funded this? Oddly, it comes from EUGT (European Research Association for Environment and Health in the Transport Sector)....who serves as a lobby group for Volkswagen, Mercedes and BMW.
Did the car-makers really know about or understand the test being conducted? This is something that is not clear from news media. I think it's possible that they were simply told that tests would be conducted and weren't aware that monkeys were involved.
All of this brings up the hyped-up commentary by various pro-animal groups as sounding.....well.....Nazi-like in experimentation. But if the statement that the monkeys are still alive today....four years later, then it means that the filter system mostly worked and maybe the serious nature of diesel business is not so bad.
For the car-makers, this story comes out pretty negative and kinda suggests that they were already worried about the direction of the new diesel technology and that it wasn't meeting the goals. The odd thing here is that they didn't do the experimentation in Europe....they did this in a US lab. One might wonder why it had to be done in the US but that's probably another entire story attached.
Friday, January 26, 2018
The Two Wife Story
Around three years ago here in Germany, I watched some round-table chat forum group reach the topic of Muslim guys showing up and getting the two-wife thing set-up. The topic was lightly discussed for about sixty seconds, and the moderator moved on.
At the time, I sat there and thought.....it'll become a serious topic eventually and Germans will ask how and where it will end.
So today, it got brought with short story from Focus. This guy from Syria....has a wife and four kids that he brought over three years ago. He applied at some point last year, for wife number two. Her story? It appears that from these kids here in Germany now....she's the mother of these kids (maybe not all but at least one, that part of the story is unclear).
What happened here? The German authorities simply state that the guy came up with paperwork and a case-by-case situation occurred, and the German authorities believed it was better that she be here in Germany, with the kids. She'll be given entry papers and a visa.
The question will eventually arise....if Mr X does the visa thing and gets his permanent visa....then goes off and gets married in some Middle Eastern country and returns to Germany with wife number two, or possibly wife number three....can they really deny him or his new wife the entry paperwork? My guess is no. It might take a full year to get papers approved and have the authorities stamp it final....but it'll likely happen.
If you had suggested a decade ago this type of scenario would happen in Germany....folks would have laughed.
What happens when a German guy decides to test this whole thing and marry in some country like this a second wife as well? At that point, I suspect the judges will sit there and realize the mess that they've created but they can't stop the German guy from having two wives (both German, mind you).
On my list of a hundred-odd implications of this whole immigration game....this is one of the odd things which you really can't project or settle. Even the pro-asylum folks would say that there's problems with this idea but they can't find a way to deny entry. The tax handling for a guy like this? Well....that would obviously come up and I doubt if the Finanazamt (German IRS) people have done much thinking over allowing two wives to exist as a 'credit'.
At the time, I sat there and thought.....it'll become a serious topic eventually and Germans will ask how and where it will end.
So today, it got brought with short story from Focus. This guy from Syria....has a wife and four kids that he brought over three years ago. He applied at some point last year, for wife number two. Her story? It appears that from these kids here in Germany now....she's the mother of these kids (maybe not all but at least one, that part of the story is unclear).
What happened here? The German authorities simply state that the guy came up with paperwork and a case-by-case situation occurred, and the German authorities believed it was better that she be here in Germany, with the kids. She'll be given entry papers and a visa.
The question will eventually arise....if Mr X does the visa thing and gets his permanent visa....then goes off and gets married in some Middle Eastern country and returns to Germany with wife number two, or possibly wife number three....can they really deny him or his new wife the entry paperwork? My guess is no. It might take a full year to get papers approved and have the authorities stamp it final....but it'll likely happen.
If you had suggested a decade ago this type of scenario would happen in Germany....folks would have laughed.
What happens when a German guy decides to test this whole thing and marry in some country like this a second wife as well? At that point, I suspect the judges will sit there and realize the mess that they've created but they can't stop the German guy from having two wives (both German, mind you).
On my list of a hundred-odd implications of this whole immigration game....this is one of the odd things which you really can't project or settle. Even the pro-asylum folks would say that there's problems with this idea but they can't find a way to deny entry. The tax handling for a guy like this? Well....that would obviously come up and I doubt if the Finanazamt (German IRS) people have done much thinking over allowing two wives to exist as a 'credit'.
Germany, Religion, and the Various Versions
This is one of those essays which talks to a issue rarely discussed in a public forum.
For those aren't familiar with Germanic lands from two-thousand years ago....it was basically a tribal region, with various religious groups (none of which were Christian in nature). Most were related in some fashion to Celtic polytheism (paganism is a good work to use). Folks were happy, and content with what had developed over tens of thousands of years. You had some big tree in the local community. Words would be spoken over marriage union and the passing-on of folks near this tree. Life was simple
Then, the Romans came.
It's safe to say in the first hundred years of the Roman Empire developing in the Germanic lands...freedom of religion was absolutely NOT a problem with the Romans. In Rome, there's a minimum of 200-plus religions being used and no one ever argued about control over religion. Yes, that is one of the odd factors of Rome, and the leadership authority that came into being in the Germanic lands as they enveloped Germany in those days.
So years passed, and the Romans eventually arrived in Judah. It's safe to say that they'd never run into a culture like the Jews, and that just killing off the local King really didn't reset the authority business with the Judah people. Freedom of religion? No....that really wasn't much of an issue. Making folks enthusiastic about trading? No, the Jewish folks were natural-born traders. So the issue basically came down to two stupid thing. The Romans wanted to introduce currency (coins) and they had the face of a human on it....which was a big NO with the rules of Jewish affairs and religion. Then without that currency deal in effect....how would you get them to pay taxes (to pay for Roman roads, authority, etc)? The Jews would prefer to just hand over a cart of apples or some product, and the Romans wanted this real simple....currency in hand.
You can sense the frustration with the Romans and having to deal with Jews.
A number of decades pass, a second little 'war' occurs, and then out of thin air....Christianity and the Bible are suddenly a competitive religion in Judah. The fact that most of the quotes out of the New Testament are pro-Rome? Well....let's not discuss that. The 'render-unto-Caesar' quote? Brilliant, but it really goes against Jewish traditional anti-face-on-currency beliefs.
Months pass, and oddly....Christianity moves onto Greece, and then Rome. In less than one single generation....Rome goes from pure religious freedom (200-plus) land, to one where only one single religion...the Catholic religion....will be allowed and thus sanctioned as a state religion. Yes, the two-hundred religions are all proclaimed pagan schemes. This helps to explain how a bunch of statues got 'damned' and more or less dumped into local garbage pits.
When the Romans came north into the Germanic lands with the new rule of one single religion....it just didn't sell that well. You were telling folks who'd had a religion for thousands of years, to dump it.
In effect, the wave that occurred was a accept-or-else trend in the Germanic lands. Magnificent cathedrals were built, and folks got hyped up on Catholic domination of land and law.
All of this continued on until 1525. Then two things occurred in a short amount of time.
First, Martin Luther opened up the door and suggested that the Catholic Church was not exactly a moral group of people. Letters of Indulgence were introduced and sold openly the Church, and Luther publicly suggested that this was pretty fake. In roughly a decade, the Catholic Church was stumbling along and in serious trouble.
Second, the printing press had been developed in Mainz. This opened up the door for mass printing of literature...namely the Bible, and folks suddenly got a chance to read the Bible in their language (not Latin like the Catholic Church preferred).
Over the next hundred years, it's safe to say that religion in Germany got totally revamped and turned into a hot topic across all of Europe. All of this spread across Europe, and by 1619....you had the Thirty Years War, which was essentially the bitter fight to end religious authority. In central Europe....between the war, starvation, and the plague...half of the population died by the end of the 30 years. Things changed.
For Germans, religion became just a personalized topic, and that was the active course of the country up until the 1950s when industrialization required outside help. So Turks came in. Turks were naturally.....Islamic in nature. But in this case....there wasn't much of a Muslim support structure existing in the 1950s, 1960s, or 1970s. The Turks came....worked....became less dedicated to the religion, and developed into what I'd call....Islam-Lite.
By the 1980s....the Saudis came and financed the building of Muslim centers in Germany, and started to staff the operations. Most Turk-Germans stayed in their happy-style of minimum religion.
But as the 1990s roll on, the Wall comes down, and more immigration occurs.
So you had Lebanese arrive, along with some Egyptians, Libyans, etc. Some saw the open lifestyle of Germans and liked the non-religious atmosphere. Some liked beer and marijuana. Some felt the need for structure and went back to the Mosque situation and got more into the old religion.
Now you come to this vast landscape.
Different arguments exist over the numbers, but it's generally believed that roughly 20-to-30 percent of German society are atheists. Even if some guy says that he's a practicing Christian, if you ask the right question....the guy will admit that he only attends church twice a year. In France, some numbers go and discuss the rate is near 40-percent.
Why the 'dumping'? I would suggest that as each generation passes....the general society inches back to 1500 years ago in thinking and questioning Christian society. Remember, this was not exactly a friendly persuasion moment when the Rome folks arrived with the new state religion deal.
The Muslims? Quietly, some folks are admitting that as they process in and got finally introduced to the Christian religion....they felt an opportunity to leave Islam and progress to a new religion. No one collects numbers, and I suspect there's a good reason not to make this a public discussion topic.
Germans flocking to Islam? In the search for 'something else'....yeah, some convert monthly over to Islam. Again, no one is really collecting these numbers either.
Adding to this whole landscape is the thought that various levels of Islam now exist in Germany, and you could go from the ultra-lite version to the extreme version.
Lets face it...if you were a fairly extreme religious conservative (of ANY group), and you evaluated nations for going into and getting to a new life, while retaining your old conservative religion....then Germany would rate near the absolute bottom. Toss in beer, wine, beer-gardens, f**ky-f**k songs on the radio, acceptance of marijuana, dress and attire of women being provocative, gay lifestyles, women in leadership roles, high rate of atheism, Christmas in a turbo-package, and an attitude to accept multiculturalism....it would be hard for some guy or gal to hold onto their extreme conservative religion.
Trying to suggest some dynamic of religion keeping people going in one single direction....won't work in Germany any longer. In some ways, we are headed back to two-thousand years ago when the Romans arrived and said religious freedom was the basis of their empire and a right of every citizen.
For those aren't familiar with Germanic lands from two-thousand years ago....it was basically a tribal region, with various religious groups (none of which were Christian in nature). Most were related in some fashion to Celtic polytheism (paganism is a good work to use). Folks were happy, and content with what had developed over tens of thousands of years. You had some big tree in the local community. Words would be spoken over marriage union and the passing-on of folks near this tree. Life was simple
Then, the Romans came.
It's safe to say in the first hundred years of the Roman Empire developing in the Germanic lands...freedom of religion was absolutely NOT a problem with the Romans. In Rome, there's a minimum of 200-plus religions being used and no one ever argued about control over religion. Yes, that is one of the odd factors of Rome, and the leadership authority that came into being in the Germanic lands as they enveloped Germany in those days.
So years passed, and the Romans eventually arrived in Judah. It's safe to say that they'd never run into a culture like the Jews, and that just killing off the local King really didn't reset the authority business with the Judah people. Freedom of religion? No....that really wasn't much of an issue. Making folks enthusiastic about trading? No, the Jewish folks were natural-born traders. So the issue basically came down to two stupid thing. The Romans wanted to introduce currency (coins) and they had the face of a human on it....which was a big NO with the rules of Jewish affairs and religion. Then without that currency deal in effect....how would you get them to pay taxes (to pay for Roman roads, authority, etc)? The Jews would prefer to just hand over a cart of apples or some product, and the Romans wanted this real simple....currency in hand.
You can sense the frustration with the Romans and having to deal with Jews.
A number of decades pass, a second little 'war' occurs, and then out of thin air....Christianity and the Bible are suddenly a competitive religion in Judah. The fact that most of the quotes out of the New Testament are pro-Rome? Well....let's not discuss that. The 'render-unto-Caesar' quote? Brilliant, but it really goes against Jewish traditional anti-face-on-currency beliefs.
Months pass, and oddly....Christianity moves onto Greece, and then Rome. In less than one single generation....Rome goes from pure religious freedom (200-plus) land, to one where only one single religion...the Catholic religion....will be allowed and thus sanctioned as a state religion. Yes, the two-hundred religions are all proclaimed pagan schemes. This helps to explain how a bunch of statues got 'damned' and more or less dumped into local garbage pits.
When the Romans came north into the Germanic lands with the new rule of one single religion....it just didn't sell that well. You were telling folks who'd had a religion for thousands of years, to dump it.
In effect, the wave that occurred was a accept-or-else trend in the Germanic lands. Magnificent cathedrals were built, and folks got hyped up on Catholic domination of land and law.
All of this continued on until 1525. Then two things occurred in a short amount of time.
First, Martin Luther opened up the door and suggested that the Catholic Church was not exactly a moral group of people. Letters of Indulgence were introduced and sold openly the Church, and Luther publicly suggested that this was pretty fake. In roughly a decade, the Catholic Church was stumbling along and in serious trouble.
Second, the printing press had been developed in Mainz. This opened up the door for mass printing of literature...namely the Bible, and folks suddenly got a chance to read the Bible in their language (not Latin like the Catholic Church preferred).
Over the next hundred years, it's safe to say that religion in Germany got totally revamped and turned into a hot topic across all of Europe. All of this spread across Europe, and by 1619....you had the Thirty Years War, which was essentially the bitter fight to end religious authority. In central Europe....between the war, starvation, and the plague...half of the population died by the end of the 30 years. Things changed.
For Germans, religion became just a personalized topic, and that was the active course of the country up until the 1950s when industrialization required outside help. So Turks came in. Turks were naturally.....Islamic in nature. But in this case....there wasn't much of a Muslim support structure existing in the 1950s, 1960s, or 1970s. The Turks came....worked....became less dedicated to the religion, and developed into what I'd call....Islam-Lite.
By the 1980s....the Saudis came and financed the building of Muslim centers in Germany, and started to staff the operations. Most Turk-Germans stayed in their happy-style of minimum religion.
But as the 1990s roll on, the Wall comes down, and more immigration occurs.
So you had Lebanese arrive, along with some Egyptians, Libyans, etc. Some saw the open lifestyle of Germans and liked the non-religious atmosphere. Some liked beer and marijuana. Some felt the need for structure and went back to the Mosque situation and got more into the old religion.
Now you come to this vast landscape.
Different arguments exist over the numbers, but it's generally believed that roughly 20-to-30 percent of German society are atheists. Even if some guy says that he's a practicing Christian, if you ask the right question....the guy will admit that he only attends church twice a year. In France, some numbers go and discuss the rate is near 40-percent.
Why the 'dumping'? I would suggest that as each generation passes....the general society inches back to 1500 years ago in thinking and questioning Christian society. Remember, this was not exactly a friendly persuasion moment when the Rome folks arrived with the new state religion deal.
The Muslims? Quietly, some folks are admitting that as they process in and got finally introduced to the Christian religion....they felt an opportunity to leave Islam and progress to a new religion. No one collects numbers, and I suspect there's a good reason not to make this a public discussion topic.
Germans flocking to Islam? In the search for 'something else'....yeah, some convert monthly over to Islam. Again, no one is really collecting these numbers either.
Adding to this whole landscape is the thought that various levels of Islam now exist in Germany, and you could go from the ultra-lite version to the extreme version.
Lets face it...if you were a fairly extreme religious conservative (of ANY group), and you evaluated nations for going into and getting to a new life, while retaining your old conservative religion....then Germany would rate near the absolute bottom. Toss in beer, wine, beer-gardens, f**ky-f**k songs on the radio, acceptance of marijuana, dress and attire of women being provocative, gay lifestyles, women in leadership roles, high rate of atheism, Christmas in a turbo-package, and an attitude to accept multiculturalism....it would be hard for some guy or gal to hold onto their extreme conservative religion.
Trying to suggest some dynamic of religion keeping people going in one single direction....won't work in Germany any longer. In some ways, we are headed back to two-thousand years ago when the Romans arrived and said religious freedom was the basis of their empire and a right of every citizen.
Loot Story
I noticed this short ten-line story on Focus this morning....a criminal mystery sort of story.
Somewhere between Hamburg and Kiel....a money-transport truck for a bank....had to stop at some rest-stop on Autobahn 21 because one of the two guys onboard was sick (one has to interpret this to mean with diarrhea but that part is left out of the story).
They get back on the road and reach the destination. There, they discover 2.3 million Euro missing.
Investigators are pouring over the account of the two guys, and one might assume there is video of the truck interior.
Oddly, the journalists also note that no one will say who actually owns the money or bag stolen. It's a fair amount of money, and you'd assume it's a bank or major consumer of capital.
Stories like this often end with the money recovered.
Somewhere between Hamburg and Kiel....a money-transport truck for a bank....had to stop at some rest-stop on Autobahn 21 because one of the two guys onboard was sick (one has to interpret this to mean with diarrhea but that part is left out of the story).
They get back on the road and reach the destination. There, they discover 2.3 million Euro missing.
Investigators are pouring over the account of the two guys, and one might assume there is video of the truck interior.
Oddly, the journalists also note that no one will say who actually owns the money or bag stolen. It's a fair amount of money, and you'd assume it's a bank or major consumer of capital.
Stories like this often end with the money recovered.
A Short Historical Story
From 1946 to 1989....East Germany, or 'DDR' existed. In some ways, it's a mythical 'kingdom' today and journalists try occasionally to remind the younger generation of the terrible woes and troubles that existed in this Communist-state.
One of my stories over the period, centers on vacations that East Germans were stuck with. Traveling beyond the border was often a tricky deal, and you certainly never went to Paris or Greece for your summer vacation.
A number of hotels were opened up around East Germany in the 1950s and 1960s....to give folks some government-sponsored week or two off for good behavior.
One of these developed properties was the Hotel Neptune up on the Baltic coast....near Warnemunde. As resort hotels go, this was probably a five-star operation, and originally designed for foreigners who came to visit East Germany, and then re-developed for a balance of some upper-class East Germans.
The remarkable thing about the Hotel Neptune is that it had most of the rooms (338 of them) bugged. Downstairs was a room where a couple of Stassi guys quietly sat and listened to hours of conversation....recording discussed topics....then sending notes and files off to some central depository where you had a folder on yourself, your wife, your kids, etc.
Most people visiting such a place would have known of the issue, and kindly limited their conversation to short talk and simply comments about the weather and food. It's not the kind of vacation that you'd really dream about but this was the best of the best-type situation and you had to adapt your lifestyle to being recorded.
Oddly enough, another feature of the hotel....because of the VIP guests, foreigners, etc.....they had to invent a 'coupon' to buy things around the hotel. So you'd arrive....have your currency with you, and buy these 'Neptune-currency' bills. Trying to explain this to people today is just about impossible, but that was the only way to prevent black-market activity.
What happened to the Hotel Neptune after the Wall came down? It continued to be a beachside resort hotel....with the bugging devices all removed. Today, it's a major spa and resort....visited by various Germans and foreigners....with none worrying about their gossip, chat, or criticism.
One of my stories over the period, centers on vacations that East Germans were stuck with. Traveling beyond the border was often a tricky deal, and you certainly never went to Paris or Greece for your summer vacation.
A number of hotels were opened up around East Germany in the 1950s and 1960s....to give folks some government-sponsored week or two off for good behavior.
One of these developed properties was the Hotel Neptune up on the Baltic coast....near Warnemunde. As resort hotels go, this was probably a five-star operation, and originally designed for foreigners who came to visit East Germany, and then re-developed for a balance of some upper-class East Germans.
The remarkable thing about the Hotel Neptune is that it had most of the rooms (338 of them) bugged. Downstairs was a room where a couple of Stassi guys quietly sat and listened to hours of conversation....recording discussed topics....then sending notes and files off to some central depository where you had a folder on yourself, your wife, your kids, etc.
Most people visiting such a place would have known of the issue, and kindly limited their conversation to short talk and simply comments about the weather and food. It's not the kind of vacation that you'd really dream about but this was the best of the best-type situation and you had to adapt your lifestyle to being recorded.
Oddly enough, another feature of the hotel....because of the VIP guests, foreigners, etc.....they had to invent a 'coupon' to buy things around the hotel. So you'd arrive....have your currency with you, and buy these 'Neptune-currency' bills. Trying to explain this to people today is just about impossible, but that was the only way to prevent black-market activity.
What happened to the Hotel Neptune after the Wall came down? It continued to be a beachside resort hotel....with the bugging devices all removed. Today, it's a major spa and resort....visited by various Germans and foreigners....with none worrying about their gossip, chat, or criticism.
Thursday, January 25, 2018
A Battle That Never Gets Discussed
Pearl Harbor, Midway, the Battle of El Alamein, the allied invasion of Italy, Normandy, the Blitz, the battle of Leningrad, the battle of Attu....all the great battles and legacies of World War II....only occur because of seventy cavalry horsemen from the Soviet Union....who were in search of greener pastures for their horses, and they happen to cross the line splitting Mongolia (a part of the Soviet Union then) and China, which was controlled by the Japanese.
Maybe it was a bad map. Maybe the officer was incompetent at reading maps. Maybe they guessed wrong on the route and just rode an extra mile too far. The results of this one afternoon sets the stage totally different for Germany, Japan, the Soviets and the US.
This is one of my little history essays which lays out this German moment in history where strategy mattered.
The date was 11 May 1939.
It's an odd piece of history that no high school teacher will touch, and the vast number of college history professors will simply leave there....not to be part of the class or any discussion. This crossing of the line...in the interest of greener pastures....is what creates a odd revision to the overall plan of Germany and Japan for conquering the majority of the civilized world.
You'd shake your head.....how seventy odd horsemen did something stupid, and rewrote the outcome of World War II....but it's a interesting tale.
The Japanese will react on this day to the "intrusion" of the Soviet cavalry men and their horses. There will be shots fired, and a retreat by the Soviet-Mongolian force.
Two days later....the Soviet-Mongolian force will return in greater numbers, and effectively destroy the local Japanese force in the area. The small battle here should have been the end.....but it wasn't.
Within six weeks....both sides were pulling in extra troops, and the Japanese force mounted a major attack against the Soviets. Air battles were conducted....aircraft were destroyed on the ground, and a full-scale, but limited action was occurring. But there's a problem....the Japanese commander didn't ever ask the Japanese high command back in Japan for permission. No one ever says much over why but one has to think that if he'd asked for permission....they might have said no.
Things got hectic once they figured out the whole thing going on. This wasn't going along with the BIG strategy of the German and Japanese alliance. You see...the BIG plan was....Germany would only have one front to worry about once they'd stream rolled over into France and taken control, and that front would be the western front.
The Japanese....as part of the strategy....would stage operations at some point in 1942....in the far east, and threaten the Soviet Union from the Siberian region. Stalin had sent out a major part of his military to Siberia, and the better of troops, tanks and aircraft were in that region. Japan would keep them busy, and eventually win.....and be rewarded with everything in Siberia.
Hitler's force would only face a limited military capability around the western portion of the Soviet Union, and within a year or two....have kicked Stalin out of Moscow. You can imagine phase two....where they return to the British situation....easily threaten them....and within weeks to months....establish a treaty where Britain will fall. The royal family will leave for Canada, and a German-friendly government will be in place.
Yeah, that resigned British King would have likely been brought back, and put on the throne.....just to establish some legit nature. At that point, there'd be three nations of significance.....the Germans, the Japanese, and the US.
By 1944....the US would be standing there with limited options.
Well....but back to the Mongolian episode. In this moment of Japanese "stall"....the Soviets quickly plan and execute a massive summer campaign against the Japanese force in the region. It will be referred to....as the Battle of Khalkhin Gol.
Around mid-September of 1939....the Japanese will come to agree to a ceasefire. There are massive losses for both camps. A force of roughly 55,000 Soviet troops will face a slightly superior number of Japanese troops (roughly 80,000). But the Soviets will have 500 tanks in the region....of a superior quality, and have three times the number of aircraft. The Japanese land-force? It never had the technical capabilities that the Soviets had.
Maybe the Japanese Navy was a four-star force....but you can't say that for the Japanese Army.
This ceasefire will be a hotly discussed topic back at Japan's military headquarters. The Japanese will claim roughly sixteen thousand dead or wounded, with the Soviets claim at nine thousand (it might have been significantly more, but the Soviets just weren't ever that honest over the number business).
So Japan reevaluated the whole strategy that Hitler's team had laid out. After Khalkhin Gol....they really didn't want to go back into Siberia and conduct another loser of a war. So, a new strategy was drawn up....which meant that Hitler had to fight two fronts.....and Stalin would move his best troops and tanks west....to defeat Hitler. The Japanese strategy would mean that they'd have to intimidate and really annihilate the US at Pearl Harbor.....thus creating a war against an enemy who probably wouldn't have been part of the game for two or three more years (then it'd be too late to help Britain or the Soviets).
So seventy cavalrymen....with their seventy horses.....in search of greener pastures....trip up the Hitler strategy....change the dynamics of World War II in a matter of minutes, and change the balance of history forever.
Why does it not ever get mentioned?
I would speculate over three basic reasons. First, altogether, there's never more than 130,000 troops combined....in this battle. Second, it's in the middle of nowhere, and no journalists ever report the stages or outcomes of daily events. For the most part, you have to accept various accounts (some false) from both the Japanese and Soviet achieves to tell part of the story. Third, it's not some grand episode, or some crown prince murdered, or some massive invasion. It's simply seventy guys with hungry horses. And that's not really hot history stuff that would be worth listening to in a boring history class.
For Germans? Well, here's the thing. Had this little cavalrymen episode not occurred, then the whole layout of the Moscow and Leningrad expedition would have changed, and Hitler would have had a totally different threat in 1943 and 1944.
Maybe it was a bad map. Maybe the officer was incompetent at reading maps. Maybe they guessed wrong on the route and just rode an extra mile too far. The results of this one afternoon sets the stage totally different for Germany, Japan, the Soviets and the US.
This is one of my little history essays which lays out this German moment in history where strategy mattered.
The date was 11 May 1939.
It's an odd piece of history that no high school teacher will touch, and the vast number of college history professors will simply leave there....not to be part of the class or any discussion. This crossing of the line...in the interest of greener pastures....is what creates a odd revision to the overall plan of Germany and Japan for conquering the majority of the civilized world.
You'd shake your head.....how seventy odd horsemen did something stupid, and rewrote the outcome of World War II....but it's a interesting tale.
The Japanese will react on this day to the "intrusion" of the Soviet cavalry men and their horses. There will be shots fired, and a retreat by the Soviet-Mongolian force.
Two days later....the Soviet-Mongolian force will return in greater numbers, and effectively destroy the local Japanese force in the area. The small battle here should have been the end.....but it wasn't.
Within six weeks....both sides were pulling in extra troops, and the Japanese force mounted a major attack against the Soviets. Air battles were conducted....aircraft were destroyed on the ground, and a full-scale, but limited action was occurring. But there's a problem....the Japanese commander didn't ever ask the Japanese high command back in Japan for permission. No one ever says much over why but one has to think that if he'd asked for permission....they might have said no.
Things got hectic once they figured out the whole thing going on. This wasn't going along with the BIG strategy of the German and Japanese alliance. You see...the BIG plan was....Germany would only have one front to worry about once they'd stream rolled over into France and taken control, and that front would be the western front.
The Japanese....as part of the strategy....would stage operations at some point in 1942....in the far east, and threaten the Soviet Union from the Siberian region. Stalin had sent out a major part of his military to Siberia, and the better of troops, tanks and aircraft were in that region. Japan would keep them busy, and eventually win.....and be rewarded with everything in Siberia.
Hitler's force would only face a limited military capability around the western portion of the Soviet Union, and within a year or two....have kicked Stalin out of Moscow. You can imagine phase two....where they return to the British situation....easily threaten them....and within weeks to months....establish a treaty where Britain will fall. The royal family will leave for Canada, and a German-friendly government will be in place.
Yeah, that resigned British King would have likely been brought back, and put on the throne.....just to establish some legit nature. At that point, there'd be three nations of significance.....the Germans, the Japanese, and the US.
By 1944....the US would be standing there with limited options.
Well....but back to the Mongolian episode. In this moment of Japanese "stall"....the Soviets quickly plan and execute a massive summer campaign against the Japanese force in the region. It will be referred to....as the Battle of Khalkhin Gol.
Around mid-September of 1939....the Japanese will come to agree to a ceasefire. There are massive losses for both camps. A force of roughly 55,000 Soviet troops will face a slightly superior number of Japanese troops (roughly 80,000). But the Soviets will have 500 tanks in the region....of a superior quality, and have three times the number of aircraft. The Japanese land-force? It never had the technical capabilities that the Soviets had.
Maybe the Japanese Navy was a four-star force....but you can't say that for the Japanese Army.
This ceasefire will be a hotly discussed topic back at Japan's military headquarters. The Japanese will claim roughly sixteen thousand dead or wounded, with the Soviets claim at nine thousand (it might have been significantly more, but the Soviets just weren't ever that honest over the number business).
So Japan reevaluated the whole strategy that Hitler's team had laid out. After Khalkhin Gol....they really didn't want to go back into Siberia and conduct another loser of a war. So, a new strategy was drawn up....which meant that Hitler had to fight two fronts.....and Stalin would move his best troops and tanks west....to defeat Hitler. The Japanese strategy would mean that they'd have to intimidate and really annihilate the US at Pearl Harbor.....thus creating a war against an enemy who probably wouldn't have been part of the game for two or three more years (then it'd be too late to help Britain or the Soviets).
So seventy cavalrymen....with their seventy horses.....in search of greener pastures....trip up the Hitler strategy....change the dynamics of World War II in a matter of minutes, and change the balance of history forever.
Why does it not ever get mentioned?
I would speculate over three basic reasons. First, altogether, there's never more than 130,000 troops combined....in this battle. Second, it's in the middle of nowhere, and no journalists ever report the stages or outcomes of daily events. For the most part, you have to accept various accounts (some false) from both the Japanese and Soviet achieves to tell part of the story. Third, it's not some grand episode, or some crown prince murdered, or some massive invasion. It's simply seventy guys with hungry horses. And that's not really hot history stuff that would be worth listening to in a boring history class.
For Germans? Well, here's the thing. Had this little cavalrymen episode not occurred, then the whole layout of the Moscow and Leningrad expedition would have changed, and Hitler would have had a totally different threat in 1943 and 1944.
The Maybe-Not-So-Gay Gay Guy
It is a serious story, which I will tell, but to some degree, one has to be amused on how the cards in this 'deck' were arranged and played.
So, in the EU, there's this rule....an absolute law that the nations of the EU must accept. If you are gay/homsexual....and a foreigner....then you enter any EU country and state that you would be threatened with arrest in the old country, then your EU country MUST accept you.
Hungary came up, and challenged the law, and the EU court said no....you can't challenge this law.
The basic background to this case? Well....this African guy from Nigerian came and applied for asylum in Hungary. His position was they'd likely turn down his application but he said he was gay, and by that definition....Hungary had to accept the application.
Hungary reviewed everything and then said this odd thing....they didn't believe he was a real genuine gay guy. They wanted a test or exam.
You can sit and imagine this test or exam. Personal questions....preferences....when did you discover your tendency....etc. The thing is....the EU Court of Justice already forbids mental tests like this.
The interesting aspect to this case is that the Hungarians had already gotten to some phrase of examination and simply noted that the guy wasn't trustworthy. They just didn't believe he was gay. All of this act? Fake.
The EU court simply didn't buy the position of the Hungarian government.
So it brings up this odd aspect of EU law. Down the line over the next ten years....as some countries continually try to halt immigration flow and hinder migrants entering.....will you end up with a million-odd gay guys immigrating into Europe?
You can imagine the news media sitting there in 2028....talking over this trend....200,000 gay migrant guys processed in just one single year. Everyone hyped up in progressive Europe over this new gay lifestyle and landscape. Ten thousand gay immigrant guys showing up in Hamburg. And behind all the chatter and hyped-up nature....a fake reality that 99.9-percent are NOT gay?
How will the news media explain this to the public? Yeah, that's a curious future question.
So, in the EU, there's this rule....an absolute law that the nations of the EU must accept. If you are gay/homsexual....and a foreigner....then you enter any EU country and state that you would be threatened with arrest in the old country, then your EU country MUST accept you.
Hungary came up, and challenged the law, and the EU court said no....you can't challenge this law.
The basic background to this case? Well....this African guy from Nigerian came and applied for asylum in Hungary. His position was they'd likely turn down his application but he said he was gay, and by that definition....Hungary had to accept the application.
Hungary reviewed everything and then said this odd thing....they didn't believe he was a real genuine gay guy. They wanted a test or exam.
You can sit and imagine this test or exam. Personal questions....preferences....when did you discover your tendency....etc. The thing is....the EU Court of Justice already forbids mental tests like this.
The interesting aspect to this case is that the Hungarians had already gotten to some phrase of examination and simply noted that the guy wasn't trustworthy. They just didn't believe he was gay. All of this act? Fake.
The EU court simply didn't buy the position of the Hungarian government.
So it brings up this odd aspect of EU law. Down the line over the next ten years....as some countries continually try to halt immigration flow and hinder migrants entering.....will you end up with a million-odd gay guys immigrating into Europe?
You can imagine the news media sitting there in 2028....talking over this trend....200,000 gay migrant guys processed in just one single year. Everyone hyped up in progressive Europe over this new gay lifestyle and landscape. Ten thousand gay immigrant guys showing up in Hamburg. And behind all the chatter and hyped-up nature....a fake reality that 99.9-percent are NOT gay?
How will the news media explain this to the public? Yeah, that's a curious future question.
Stabbing Story
I sometimes essay over German culture and society, touching on issues which are becoming more evident.
Focus brought up this weird episode from Lunen, Germany from last week....a stabbing within a school.
The basic story here is that a dual nationality 15-year old kid (not from the Middle East or north Africa)....got into an aggressive situation and killed a 14-year old kid.
Cops and authorities have been investigating the act. They have the 15-year old kid in custody, and some things about the kid are begging more questions.
This 15-year old? Well....he's apparently known by the police. That when said that way.....typically means that they've got a record on the kid and he's been in police trouble before. The comments? He is absolutely considered aggressive, and noted with the comment 'unguarded'. What's this 'unguarded' mean? Well....it typically means that he's been noted as a threat to teachers or other school kids before.
Typically, this is where the school calls up the parents and usually says that a meeting must be held....that your kid is not controllable. These are the kids who simply won't take orders or accept consequences.
When some German throws around the term "unbeschulbar"....it means you can't ground them or get them to focus on doing anything. The kid, more or less....is a loser. That's the term used in this kid's description.
The German school system is absolutely compelled to accept kids up to sixteen and provide an education. The law is on the books, and there is no choice.
But what's happened over the last decade as more kids reach the uncontrolled state of mind....is that the school will suggest to expel the kid and close the learning process on the kid. Around the Koln area for 2017....numbers were given for kids expelled....534 students dismissed. The general choice then is to convince another public school to accept the kid, or to get him/her into a private school.
Murder charges for this kid? No. He'll get counseling and be put into some type of facility until age 18.....then likely released. If some judge believes that he is uncontrollable, and evidence is presented....it's possible that they've move him to a permanent facility and say he's got mental issues and can't be trusted.
All of this leads one to wonder about the state of juvenile behavior in Germany. You cant really blame this on migration, or radical Islam (he didn't fit into either those). Most of these kids in this category are simply kids who got behind.....lost interest....and don't see any positive need to attend school. In their case, you might as well send them onto some burger-flipper job, and hope for the best.
Focus brought up this weird episode from Lunen, Germany from last week....a stabbing within a school.
The basic story here is that a dual nationality 15-year old kid (not from the Middle East or north Africa)....got into an aggressive situation and killed a 14-year old kid.
Cops and authorities have been investigating the act. They have the 15-year old kid in custody, and some things about the kid are begging more questions.
This 15-year old? Well....he's apparently known by the police. That when said that way.....typically means that they've got a record on the kid and he's been in police trouble before. The comments? He is absolutely considered aggressive, and noted with the comment 'unguarded'. What's this 'unguarded' mean? Well....it typically means that he's been noted as a threat to teachers or other school kids before.
Typically, this is where the school calls up the parents and usually says that a meeting must be held....that your kid is not controllable. These are the kids who simply won't take orders or accept consequences.
When some German throws around the term "unbeschulbar"....it means you can't ground them or get them to focus on doing anything. The kid, more or less....is a loser. That's the term used in this kid's description.
The German school system is absolutely compelled to accept kids up to sixteen and provide an education. The law is on the books, and there is no choice.
But what's happened over the last decade as more kids reach the uncontrolled state of mind....is that the school will suggest to expel the kid and close the learning process on the kid. Around the Koln area for 2017....numbers were given for kids expelled....534 students dismissed. The general choice then is to convince another public school to accept the kid, or to get him/her into a private school.
Murder charges for this kid? No. He'll get counseling and be put into some type of facility until age 18.....then likely released. If some judge believes that he is uncontrollable, and evidence is presented....it's possible that they've move him to a permanent facility and say he's got mental issues and can't be trusted.
All of this leads one to wonder about the state of juvenile behavior in Germany. You cant really blame this on migration, or radical Islam (he didn't fit into either those). Most of these kids in this category are simply kids who got behind.....lost interest....and don't see any positive need to attend school. In their case, you might as well send them onto some burger-flipper job, and hope for the best.
Tuesday, January 23, 2018
Killer of 98 Germans
It's a page two type story, which some Germans will miss but it's a curious piece told by NDR (regional NW German public network).
Back around the 2005 to 2008 period....cops got tipped off on a male German nurse, and maybe he'd poisoned a number of patients. Authorities by 2008, had brought up murder charges for two dead folks, and sentenced him off for fifteen years. What he'd done....was use the active ingredients of Ajmaline, sotalol, lidocaine and amiodarone.
These would create a heart situation....with a life-threatening cardiac arrhythmia. He'd then resuscitate the individual....bringing some back to life, and others.....well....they didn't make it.
After that episode....a fair number of folks were not completely satisfied that it was only the two dead. So there's been a 10-year investigation going on, with dead folks dug up and toxicology tests done.
Today, the authorities say they have enough to charge him with an additional 96 people dead. In fact, there could be MORE, but in a lot of cases.....folks were cremated and you couldn't prove much of anything. More court activity will occur, and the general feeling is that there's enough evidence now that will make the judges permanently hold the guy (41 years old) forever.
It's the kind of story that you just shake your head over. He intentionally kept trying bring on heart attacks with folks....just for a chance to show off.
Back around the 2005 to 2008 period....cops got tipped off on a male German nurse, and maybe he'd poisoned a number of patients. Authorities by 2008, had brought up murder charges for two dead folks, and sentenced him off for fifteen years. What he'd done....was use the active ingredients of Ajmaline, sotalol, lidocaine and amiodarone.
These would create a heart situation....with a life-threatening cardiac arrhythmia. He'd then resuscitate the individual....bringing some back to life, and others.....well....they didn't make it.
After that episode....a fair number of folks were not completely satisfied that it was only the two dead. So there's been a 10-year investigation going on, with dead folks dug up and toxicology tests done.
Today, the authorities say they have enough to charge him with an additional 96 people dead. In fact, there could be MORE, but in a lot of cases.....folks were cremated and you couldn't prove much of anything. More court activity will occur, and the general feeling is that there's enough evidence now that will make the judges permanently hold the guy (41 years old) forever.
It's the kind of story that you just shake your head over. He intentionally kept trying bring on heart attacks with folks....just for a chance to show off.
Sunday, January 21, 2018
Empathy, Germans, and Trump
Empathy generally means....you put yourself in another person's shoes....reference their thoughts, worries, woes, and beliefs....and you find some common ground.
Generally, when intellectuals talk empathy, they suggest that both sides come to a precise middle-ground....does not get any real hype. No one says precisely how both sides could give up half of their core argument or discussion. Historically, it's hard to find any situation in the past forty-odd years where empathy was played out and two sides came to a neutral point. I know folks will argue otherwise, but I challenge them to some point in Europe, the US or any part of the world where two sides gave up half of their argument and reached some purely neutral situation in life.
Why bring up this topic today? German N-TV (commercial in nature) went out and did an interview with an American intellectual....Carolyn J. Lukensmeyer. Lukensymeyer (PhD) leads the organization National Institute for Civil Discourse in the US, which has the primary function of bringing mass empathy across the American landscape.
Lukensmeyer's big mission in life? She wants to bring the mass of Americans to publicly discuss Trump and restore balance....meaning that Trump isn't elected in 2020 for another occasion. To achieve that, she is hyped up on empathy.
N-TV's interview with Lukensmeyer discusses the whole matter, and how they are bringing thousands together and reshaping their view of Trump....so that empathy wins out in the win (meaning no Trump exists after 2020).
Germans are somewhat interested in topics like this. For German intellectuals, if empathy had existed in 2016....then Americans would not have voted for Trump and the world would be a fine place today.
The interview is well worth reading (probably sixty lines).
The general problem I see with intellectuals and this argument of empathy....it means you'd have to come half-way across (from both sides). So you'd go and ask the intellectual folks to put on common-working-man's shoes, face up to NAFTA, unemployment and feel the general suffering required in a chaotic business environment. For some reason, most journalists, intellectuals and such....don't worry much about their work, their household, or their stability....they aren't the likely ones to ever be laid off or out of work for a year or two.
Yes, this empathy thing would awful hard for some folks to wear the shoes of the other. For this reason, I tend to see the discussion and suggestion of more empathy 'balance' as being amusing.
If Hillary Clinton had judged the 'rust-belt' and the NAFTA job episode correctly, she might have come out with a similar position like Trump. But she didn't. Nor do I think anyone for serious consideration in the Democratic Primary for 2020....will ever chat about this jobs situation or negativity over NAFTA. They will hype up fake news, the evil Russians, and the desire for empathy. None of those things restores job confidence or builds up enthusiasm for business growth in America.
This empathy thing in Germany? Maybe up until the end of 2016, there was zero empathy over migration and asylum efforts in Germany.....it was a one-sided topic. Now? Over the past two years, both major political parties have been dragged into the empathy pit and forced to wear the shoes of migration oppositionists. If you had suggested that type of empathy would exist in Germany back in 2015, most journalists would have laughed. Yet here we are....the pro-asylum crowd has been forced into become highly empathic toward the anti-asylum folks.
So when you hear the topic of empathy....the first thing to ask....is there anyone really willing to bend half-way toward the other's guys position?
Generally, when intellectuals talk empathy, they suggest that both sides come to a precise middle-ground....does not get any real hype. No one says precisely how both sides could give up half of their core argument or discussion. Historically, it's hard to find any situation in the past forty-odd years where empathy was played out and two sides came to a neutral point. I know folks will argue otherwise, but I challenge them to some point in Europe, the US or any part of the world where two sides gave up half of their argument and reached some purely neutral situation in life.
Why bring up this topic today? German N-TV (commercial in nature) went out and did an interview with an American intellectual....Carolyn J. Lukensmeyer. Lukensymeyer (PhD) leads the organization National Institute for Civil Discourse in the US, which has the primary function of bringing mass empathy across the American landscape.
Lukensmeyer's big mission in life? She wants to bring the mass of Americans to publicly discuss Trump and restore balance....meaning that Trump isn't elected in 2020 for another occasion. To achieve that, she is hyped up on empathy.
N-TV's interview with Lukensmeyer discusses the whole matter, and how they are bringing thousands together and reshaping their view of Trump....so that empathy wins out in the win (meaning no Trump exists after 2020).
Germans are somewhat interested in topics like this. For German intellectuals, if empathy had existed in 2016....then Americans would not have voted for Trump and the world would be a fine place today.
The interview is well worth reading (probably sixty lines).
The general problem I see with intellectuals and this argument of empathy....it means you'd have to come half-way across (from both sides). So you'd go and ask the intellectual folks to put on common-working-man's shoes, face up to NAFTA, unemployment and feel the general suffering required in a chaotic business environment. For some reason, most journalists, intellectuals and such....don't worry much about their work, their household, or their stability....they aren't the likely ones to ever be laid off or out of work for a year or two.
Yes, this empathy thing would awful hard for some folks to wear the shoes of the other. For this reason, I tend to see the discussion and suggestion of more empathy 'balance' as being amusing.
If Hillary Clinton had judged the 'rust-belt' and the NAFTA job episode correctly, she might have come out with a similar position like Trump. But she didn't. Nor do I think anyone for serious consideration in the Democratic Primary for 2020....will ever chat about this jobs situation or negativity over NAFTA. They will hype up fake news, the evil Russians, and the desire for empathy. None of those things restores job confidence or builds up enthusiasm for business growth in America.
This empathy thing in Germany? Maybe up until the end of 2016, there was zero empathy over migration and asylum efforts in Germany.....it was a one-sided topic. Now? Over the past two years, both major political parties have been dragged into the empathy pit and forced to wear the shoes of migration oppositionists. If you had suggested that type of empathy would exist in Germany back in 2015, most journalists would have laughed. Yet here we are....the pro-asylum crowd has been forced into become highly empathic toward the anti-asylum folks.
So when you hear the topic of empathy....the first thing to ask....is there anyone really willing to bend half-way toward the other's guys position?
Saturday, January 20, 2018
Don't Insult German Cops Story
There's probably a hundred bits of advice I give 'new' Americans in Germany....but up toward the very top of the list....don't insult or provoke German cops or border-control authorities.
I sat this morning and was reading through regional news in Hessen, and HR put out this short story of an American's little adventure or tirade at the Frankfurt Airport.
Germans perform a fair amount of security now, and there's a list of things that you don't bring along in your hand baggage.....one in particular is liquids. The rule allows a bag to exist of a particular size, and whatever fits into the bag in terms of liquids....is IT.
So this American gal....actually noted in US peace circles....name unlisted (professor at Georgetown University)....got into a little argument over their rules. She had a can of deodorant (liquid), and they told us the standard solution....either it fits into your plastic bag, or you throw it into the garbage can because you can't bring it with you. By the new item, it appears that her plastic bag was practically full already....so they went to the routine of you having to throw the item away.
I've sat and watched the German security guys and border control folks on dozens of occasions enforce the rule. They are awful polite but strict. You can argue about the matter in a respectful way but it won't matter....whatever liquid you dragged along....won't go through the system or be allowed in the carry-on.
Well....the professor went to the next routine which I strongly recommend to avoid. She uttered the words: ""fucking bastards" and "fucking German Nazi police". Yep....that was a serious problem for the cops, and they felt insulted. In German law, that gets you into some legal trouble, with a fine.
I'm guessing they tried to calm her down but it didn't work. The German cops then pulled out the paperwork and processed her on a charge of insulting the police. A preliminary investigation on suspicion of slander exists. To exit the country at that point, you have to deposit roughly 200 Euro. That's not the fine but just a deposit.
I guess at this point, she stopped talking and just went to Twitter to 'jab' at them. They monitored that and noted that bad behavior as well. Then she even suggested via Twitter....that the German cops robbed her.
Needless to say.....the professor has probably extinguished her welcome on the next trip into Germany and will have issues. On the insult level, there will be some court activity likely coming out of this and she will fail to show (my humble guess). What can the German court system issue in terms of slander? Well....the judge controls the process, and you have two possibilities. One is a fine. The other is a period of jail....NOT to exceed twelve months in a state prison.
Actually, there's even another German criminal code (section 189) which says you can't insult or slander anyone who is dead. That could get you a fine, or possibly up to two years in prison.
To be honest, I've only heard of two episodes ever where folks went to the slander episode and had court activity which they were convicted and got jail-time. In both cases, it was 30 to 60 days of jail-time. So it's awful rare that you get jail....but I also think it's awful rare that any German will insult the cops, and particularly rare to insult dead people.
I should note here....just suggesting someone is crazy...could be enough to suggest slander and have the cops and court involved. A lot of this business goes back the 1800s in Germany and the various rules which were developed to control people's anger.
In the professor's case? I think the court episode will come up....she probably won't show, and they will process her through some guilty point. A fine of probably a thousand Euro or less will be the likely outcome....with probably no jail-time. However, IF the professor continues the tirade on Twitter enough (they will monitor it) then they will have evidence to go onto the next level and suggest to the judge that a month in jail might be necessary.
My advice to the professor is to turn off the Twitter chat business for a month....say a few apologies, hire a German lawyer and just pay the fine as quickly as possible. Otherwise, don't plan on an entry into the EU or the enforcement business will affect you.
Bottom line....if ever dealing with German cops or border control....don't do anything stupid.
Added note: If you want the other version of what happened, it's up on Huffington Post. HR basically told a 15-line story. Fair wrote out a 200-line story, and noted a number of behavioral issues with the cops....whether true or not....it's up to you the reader to decide.
I sat this morning and was reading through regional news in Hessen, and HR put out this short story of an American's little adventure or tirade at the Frankfurt Airport.
Germans perform a fair amount of security now, and there's a list of things that you don't bring along in your hand baggage.....one in particular is liquids. The rule allows a bag to exist of a particular size, and whatever fits into the bag in terms of liquids....is IT.
So this American gal....actually noted in US peace circles....name unlisted (professor at Georgetown University)....got into a little argument over their rules. She had a can of deodorant (liquid), and they told us the standard solution....either it fits into your plastic bag, or you throw it into the garbage can because you can't bring it with you. By the new item, it appears that her plastic bag was practically full already....so they went to the routine of you having to throw the item away.
I've sat and watched the German security guys and border control folks on dozens of occasions enforce the rule. They are awful polite but strict. You can argue about the matter in a respectful way but it won't matter....whatever liquid you dragged along....won't go through the system or be allowed in the carry-on.
Well....the professor went to the next routine which I strongly recommend to avoid. She uttered the words: ""fucking bastards" and "fucking German Nazi police". Yep....that was a serious problem for the cops, and they felt insulted. In German law, that gets you into some legal trouble, with a fine.
I'm guessing they tried to calm her down but it didn't work. The German cops then pulled out the paperwork and processed her on a charge of insulting the police. A preliminary investigation on suspicion of slander exists. To exit the country at that point, you have to deposit roughly 200 Euro. That's not the fine but just a deposit.
I guess at this point, she stopped talking and just went to Twitter to 'jab' at them. They monitored that and noted that bad behavior as well. Then she even suggested via Twitter....that the German cops robbed her.
Needless to say.....the professor has probably extinguished her welcome on the next trip into Germany and will have issues. On the insult level, there will be some court activity likely coming out of this and she will fail to show (my humble guess). What can the German court system issue in terms of slander? Well....the judge controls the process, and you have two possibilities. One is a fine. The other is a period of jail....NOT to exceed twelve months in a state prison.
Actually, there's even another German criminal code (section 189) which says you can't insult or slander anyone who is dead. That could get you a fine, or possibly up to two years in prison.
To be honest, I've only heard of two episodes ever where folks went to the slander episode and had court activity which they were convicted and got jail-time. In both cases, it was 30 to 60 days of jail-time. So it's awful rare that you get jail....but I also think it's awful rare that any German will insult the cops, and particularly rare to insult dead people.
I should note here....just suggesting someone is crazy...could be enough to suggest slander and have the cops and court involved. A lot of this business goes back the 1800s in Germany and the various rules which were developed to control people's anger.
In the professor's case? I think the court episode will come up....she probably won't show, and they will process her through some guilty point. A fine of probably a thousand Euro or less will be the likely outcome....with probably no jail-time. However, IF the professor continues the tirade on Twitter enough (they will monitor it) then they will have evidence to go onto the next level and suggest to the judge that a month in jail might be necessary.
My advice to the professor is to turn off the Twitter chat business for a month....say a few apologies, hire a German lawyer and just pay the fine as quickly as possible. Otherwise, don't plan on an entry into the EU or the enforcement business will affect you.
Bottom line....if ever dealing with German cops or border control....don't do anything stupid.
Added note: If you want the other version of what happened, it's up on Huffington Post. HR basically told a 15-line story. Fair wrote out a 200-line story, and noted a number of behavioral issues with the cops....whether true or not....it's up to you the reader to decide.
Friday, January 19, 2018
Dogg is Dead?
Over the past two years, I've essayed a couple of pieces over an ISIS thug/terrorist that was originally a Berlin rapper.....Denis Cuspert....otherwise known in the Berlin rap scene as Deso Dogg.
It is an epic story which I've already told on two or three occasions and I won't repeat the whole story.
There's been at least five or six occasions where the German government came out and said Dogg is dead on the battle-front of Syria. The Americans have said for sure....Dogg is dead....at least once.
Then you have some brief period where someone says 'no'.....Dogg ain't dead.
I noticed today in Focus, another 6-line piece....saying now that a foundation (The Intelligence Group), who often studies ISIS propaganda now says for sure.....Dogg is dead and was killed in the city of Gharanij.
The odds that they are correct? It's hard to say.
Frankly, it's an epic story over Denis Cuspert, who was a born trouble-maker as a kid, flipped into being a rapper, got heavily into drugs, ran through some brief big-name career as a rap artist, then converted to Islam, ran off to the ISIS war, and about every six months is said to be dead, then magically appears again.
Personally, I would speculate that by mid-summer, someone will report that they've seen Denis (Dogg) once again, and set off a period of speculation that he's still alive.
If I were making this movie....I'd call it the "Guy With Nine Lives". Yeah, it'd be a black comedy.
It is an epic story which I've already told on two or three occasions and I won't repeat the whole story.
There's been at least five or six occasions where the German government came out and said Dogg is dead on the battle-front of Syria. The Americans have said for sure....Dogg is dead....at least once.
Then you have some brief period where someone says 'no'.....Dogg ain't dead.
I noticed today in Focus, another 6-line piece....saying now that a foundation (The Intelligence Group), who often studies ISIS propaganda now says for sure.....Dogg is dead and was killed in the city of Gharanij.
The odds that they are correct? It's hard to say.
Frankly, it's an epic story over Denis Cuspert, who was a born trouble-maker as a kid, flipped into being a rapper, got heavily into drugs, ran through some brief big-name career as a rap artist, then converted to Islam, ran off to the ISIS war, and about every six months is said to be dead, then magically appears again.
Personally, I would speculate that by mid-summer, someone will report that they've seen Denis (Dogg) once again, and set off a period of speculation that he's still alive.
If I were making this movie....I'd call it the "Guy With Nine Lives". Yeah, it'd be a black comedy.
Thursday, January 18, 2018
German Farm Story
The German government has a Minister of the Environment, and a Minister of Agriculture. It used to be, at least ten years ago....that these two would not step on the toes of each other. In the past couple of years....things have changed. So, this negative episode arose today between the two (remember....the Agricultural guy is a CSU guy, who is Bavarian and conservative, while the environmental minister gal is a SPD figure and has a problem with numerous agricultural aspects) .
The Environmental Minister (Hendricks) said that German farmers actually handle too many animals (pork and beef in the hint) and this all relates to higher exports....using the phrase...."every Chinese fridge" has German pork.
Part of the negativity about farming also relates back to the licensing required, and regulations established over large barns (for pigs and chickens). It's not the agricultural ministry that controls that....it's the environmental ministry. So if a farmer came up with an idea to double his income in five years, but he needs to plan and build a sizeable barn to handle the added pigs.....it comes down to some paperwork and having work with various stringent rules on excess waste and such from the barn 'critters'.
It's simple to say that some farmers, especially in the southern half of Germany....are a bit peeved with the agricultural ministry. They see various opportunities to get ahead of the game....grow profits....and they have some hopes that the governments see this as a chance to make an income and return tax revenue to the pot at the end of the day.
The odds that this difficult relationship will continue with the new coalition government? It's very likely.
Course, if you were across the border into France, Poland or Czech....they love this type of German meddling with farmers because it increases the chance that their products will grow in sales, and take away business from the Germans. The SPD folks? Without much thought to it.....they probably wouldn't mind German production shrinking and tax revenue downsized.
The Environmental Minister (Hendricks) said that German farmers actually handle too many animals (pork and beef in the hint) and this all relates to higher exports....using the phrase...."every Chinese fridge" has German pork.
Part of the negativity about farming also relates back to the licensing required, and regulations established over large barns (for pigs and chickens). It's not the agricultural ministry that controls that....it's the environmental ministry. So if a farmer came up with an idea to double his income in five years, but he needs to plan and build a sizeable barn to handle the added pigs.....it comes down to some paperwork and having work with various stringent rules on excess waste and such from the barn 'critters'.
It's simple to say that some farmers, especially in the southern half of Germany....are a bit peeved with the agricultural ministry. They see various opportunities to get ahead of the game....grow profits....and they have some hopes that the governments see this as a chance to make an income and return tax revenue to the pot at the end of the day.
The odds that this difficult relationship will continue with the new coalition government? It's very likely.
Course, if you were across the border into France, Poland or Czech....they love this type of German meddling with farmers because it increases the chance that their products will grow in sales, and take away business from the Germans. The SPD folks? Without much thought to it.....they probably wouldn't mind German production shrinking and tax revenue downsized.
Kurz and Maischberger
Last night, ARD (German public TV, Channel One) carried one of it's chat forum shows....with Sandra Maischberger leading a conversation with the new Chancellor of Austria....Sebastian Kurz, and one of the German Green Party folks....Jurgen Tritten.
Some Germans (mostly conservatives and those questioning the immigration) have a favorable view of Kurz. Some Germans (especially those on the far left)....don't have much of a liking to Kurz).
From my view, Kurz is a rather odd character. He's 31 years old. After finishing up the mandatory period of youth in the Austrian Army....he went to college for a short period of time, and then left....to go into politics. Over the past five years, it's safe to say that he's impressed a lot of people....shown himself to be very clever and bright, and usually does well in debates. To be blunt here.....there's no one in Germany at this level....at this age (31).
So the interview was expected to touch on Austrian topics, positions taken, the anti-immigration talk, etc. Maischberger? Well...she decided to go and touch on personal stuff...like his wedding plans. Then she got over into the fact that he has no academic degree, that he is the first head of a government with a 'student-card'....which is a slam on youth.
Viewers? Well....Focus brought this up in their article....they felt Maischberger treated him with a lack of respect (he is a Chancellor, folks noted).
This comes to an observation of mine over the years and Germans hyped about the degree status or educational status of leaders. Generally, political folks and journalists are absolutely convinced that you need to have a degree....preferably an advanced degree....to be Chancellor or some ranking position in the government. No one should have responsibility without such a degree.
I've watched this to some degree explained at various occasions, and how intellectuals are the engine-and-wheels of the German government....with the same typically explained for any journalist for ARD or ZDF.
Bad behavior on Maischberger part? Well....she's in a unfireable-position. Both ARD and ZDF have reached a level where they can't really fire anyone. Her point here which she hoped that viewers would catch and think her position rather clever....probably didn't sell to half the people watching. As for adding to the list of reasons why some folks hate the TV media tax and the quality on public TV? Well....some folks did mention that off the comments page for the public channel. I hate to suggest it but the journalists are harming their product without even realizing it.
I think if you went and asked working-class Germans about Kurz....most know of him and his position, and I suspect that a fair number of CDU voters (right-of-center) would like to replace Merkel with someone like this, but they have no such 'creature'.
If you wanted to watch the interview....Sunday night at 1:30 AM (yeah, real late) on 3SAT, it will appear.
Some Germans (mostly conservatives and those questioning the immigration) have a favorable view of Kurz. Some Germans (especially those on the far left)....don't have much of a liking to Kurz).
From my view, Kurz is a rather odd character. He's 31 years old. After finishing up the mandatory period of youth in the Austrian Army....he went to college for a short period of time, and then left....to go into politics. Over the past five years, it's safe to say that he's impressed a lot of people....shown himself to be very clever and bright, and usually does well in debates. To be blunt here.....there's no one in Germany at this level....at this age (31).
So the interview was expected to touch on Austrian topics, positions taken, the anti-immigration talk, etc. Maischberger? Well...she decided to go and touch on personal stuff...like his wedding plans. Then she got over into the fact that he has no academic degree, that he is the first head of a government with a 'student-card'....which is a slam on youth.
Viewers? Well....Focus brought this up in their article....they felt Maischberger treated him with a lack of respect (he is a Chancellor, folks noted).
This comes to an observation of mine over the years and Germans hyped about the degree status or educational status of leaders. Generally, political folks and journalists are absolutely convinced that you need to have a degree....preferably an advanced degree....to be Chancellor or some ranking position in the government. No one should have responsibility without such a degree.
I've watched this to some degree explained at various occasions, and how intellectuals are the engine-and-wheels of the German government....with the same typically explained for any journalist for ARD or ZDF.
Bad behavior on Maischberger part? Well....she's in a unfireable-position. Both ARD and ZDF have reached a level where they can't really fire anyone. Her point here which she hoped that viewers would catch and think her position rather clever....probably didn't sell to half the people watching. As for adding to the list of reasons why some folks hate the TV media tax and the quality on public TV? Well....some folks did mention that off the comments page for the public channel. I hate to suggest it but the journalists are harming their product without even realizing it.
I think if you went and asked working-class Germans about Kurz....most know of him and his position, and I suspect that a fair number of CDU voters (right-of-center) would like to replace Merkel with someone like this, but they have no such 'creature'.
If you wanted to watch the interview....Sunday night at 1:30 AM (yeah, real late) on 3SAT, it will appear.
The Worry Story
Sweden got into some noted news this week as they announced that they are going to go and prepare a public-booklet for citizens (to be sent to each residence)....on what to do in the event of war or chaos.
I know, it is a bit of an unusual topic and you just kinda wonder how this got brought up and approved within the government.
For those who aren't that familiar with Sweden....it's a country of 9.9 million (roughly similar in size to North Carolina for population, but about four times the physical size of North Carolina).
What's going on with this war topic? Well....the news media and political folks are hyped up and will suggest that some type of Russia threat exists. In 2017, they started the draft back up for the Swedish military.
To be honest....since probably the 1980s....Sweden has been on the low side of worry. What changed? One might go and look at the headlines over the past decade and get the idea that no one is really as secure or safe as they would have been two or three decades ago. You could easily wake up one morning to find your electrical grid was corrupted overnight, and shut-down.....and it might be five days before they figure out what happened and restore your power.
If you went to anyone (not just a Swede)....most would admit that they have worries now that didn't exist a decade ago. Folks worry about crime, terrorism, threats, etc.
How much survival knowledge exists today compared to thirty years ago? Folks would generally admit that this hasn't been noticed much but there is a fair loss of this type of knowledge. It's not just in Sweden but across the globe itself. Maybe the manual makes sense in this case.
I know, it is a bit of an unusual topic and you just kinda wonder how this got brought up and approved within the government.
For those who aren't that familiar with Sweden....it's a country of 9.9 million (roughly similar in size to North Carolina for population, but about four times the physical size of North Carolina).
What's going on with this war topic? Well....the news media and political folks are hyped up and will suggest that some type of Russia threat exists. In 2017, they started the draft back up for the Swedish military.
To be honest....since probably the 1980s....Sweden has been on the low side of worry. What changed? One might go and look at the headlines over the past decade and get the idea that no one is really as secure or safe as they would have been two or three decades ago. You could easily wake up one morning to find your electrical grid was corrupted overnight, and shut-down.....and it might be five days before they figure out what happened and restore your power.
If you went to anyone (not just a Swede)....most would admit that they have worries now that didn't exist a decade ago. Folks worry about crime, terrorism, threats, etc.
How much survival knowledge exists today compared to thirty years ago? Folks would generally admit that this hasn't been noticed much but there is a fair loss of this type of knowledge. It's not just in Sweden but across the globe itself. Maybe the manual makes sense in this case.
Wednesday, January 17, 2018
The Break-In Story
About forty miles southeast of Stuttgart, getting almost into Bavaria....is the town of Ulm, population of roughly 120,000 Germans.
Cops there came upon a burglary situation, with a death involved. What the cops say is that an older guy...59 years old....walked into the house to find the burglars at work. Note plural here.
The story goes to this situation....the man and woman burglary team ended up roughing up the 59-year old German guy. By statements in the news....they must have hit the guy in the head fairly hard. Then they tied the guy up.
Well, when the cops arrived and called for an ambulance....the German 59-year old guy ended up dead from the injury to the head.
The forensics team ended up pointing back at a particular couple....Eastern European in nature, and a few days later, they were arrested. Husband and wife team. The material taken by the two hasn't turned up, but there appears to be enough evidence to put them at the scene.
The sad thing here is that they kinda crossed the line, and caused this one German guy's death. One of the two (either the husband or the wife) will end up having to do some pretty serious prison time.
This is one of the odd aspects of crime in Germany today. A large group of the criminally-minded folks are mostly just 'nickle-and-dime' burglary folks, who see Germany as a 'Disneyland-like' situation for easy break-in's and no real threat from law enforcement. In this case, by the assault involved....they've basically ended their burglary lifestyle.
Cops there came upon a burglary situation, with a death involved. What the cops say is that an older guy...59 years old....walked into the house to find the burglars at work. Note plural here.
The story goes to this situation....the man and woman burglary team ended up roughing up the 59-year old German guy. By statements in the news....they must have hit the guy in the head fairly hard. Then they tied the guy up.
Well, when the cops arrived and called for an ambulance....the German 59-year old guy ended up dead from the injury to the head.
The forensics team ended up pointing back at a particular couple....Eastern European in nature, and a few days later, they were arrested. Husband and wife team. The material taken by the two hasn't turned up, but there appears to be enough evidence to put them at the scene.
The sad thing here is that they kinda crossed the line, and caused this one German guy's death. One of the two (either the husband or the wife) will end up having to do some pretty serious prison time.
This is one of the odd aspects of crime in Germany today. A large group of the criminally-minded folks are mostly just 'nickle-and-dime' burglary folks, who see Germany as a 'Disneyland-like' situation for easy break-in's and no real threat from law enforcement. In this case, by the assault involved....they've basically ended their burglary lifestyle.
My TV Viewing Last Night
Last night, I ended flipping the TV channel over to the ARTE Channel. For those who aren't familiar with the German ARTE Channel....it's basically an "intellectual's intellectual network". The stuff that they run is documentary type stuff, cinema-type movies from around the world, and political stuff that would not be of interest to 90-percent of German society.
To be kinda honest, it's typical not on the list of generally watched German channels in most houses. If you asked a hundred Germans (working-class) about the network....probably over seventy-percent would say they watch zero hours per year. I'm in the category of about twelve hours a year, but it's mostly classic cinema movies.
So the show(s) I ended watching? Putin versus USA, Russia and the US Election. It was a two parter....approximately 52 minutes each....a documentary piece from 2017. I missed about five minutes of the first part, and flipped off about 25 minutes into the second part.
The basic story (this was an American documentary producer) here is that Hillary Clinton would have won the 2016 election, had it not been for Vladimir Putin and his vast help for Donald Trump.
Generally, I would say the team put a fair amount of work into this, interviewing at least twenty significant players in the Trump White House, some folks on the Hillary Clinton team, and a couple of political strategists.
They did lead folks through the basic introduction of the Ukraine mess and how it developed....probably missing about thirty minutes of real introduction on the EU and it's opportunity to bring Ukraine into the 'big deal'.
They did hype the whole WikiLeaks business and the various emails released. In just about every single case they mentioned....they did miss the fact that the Democratic National Committee had done a lousy job of protecting their data, and they did kinda leave out the bulk of the story over Hillary's bathroom email server. On the Hillary illness factor, it did surprise me that they gave it a good eight minutes of coverage, but it was mostly to note the over-dramatic angle of the whole story told, and never asking the magical question....what exactly was really wrong with Hillary's health?
Most Germans watching this....would have been totally in agreement and thinking the obvious that Putin is what got Trump into the White House.....nothing else could explain this logically.
The fact that the Russians paid roughly ONLY $100k for all the ads mentioned about 'fake news' on Facebook? Well....yeah, they did skip that part. The survey by the two college professors which noted by spring of 2017 that the bulk of fake news was readily forgotten within two weeks after reading? Yeah, that was skipped. The fact that a large segment never clicked on the fake news pieces via Facebook? Well, that was skipped too. At some point, I think I added up about twenty things that should have been brought up, and make for a complete story.
The problem is....the producer had this aim to only make a two-type show, and for anyone to have told the entire story....skipping the blame segment of Putin, you would have needed at least twelve hours for a decent documentary.
How many Germans watched the two-parter last night? I would take a wild guess here that fewer than 200,000 across Germany (of 82-million) probably watched the segments. Most of these folks (the intellectuals)....really need some reason to blame someone for the defeat of Hillary Clinton. The fact that roughly 42-percent of Democrats preferred Bernie Sanders? Well....yeah, it's best not to bring up the primary. The fact that the NAFTA negativity in the rust-belt is so great and Hillary's team never recognized that factor? Just another part to the bigger story.
I don't have much of a problem in that type of documentary being shown....especially on the ARTE Channel. But it's real value in terms of viewership? There were probably twenty times as many Germans watching 'Bones' and 'CSI-Vegas' as watching this Hillary documentary. And let's not even bring how many were watching The Simpsons or soccer.
To be kinda honest, it's typical not on the list of generally watched German channels in most houses. If you asked a hundred Germans (working-class) about the network....probably over seventy-percent would say they watch zero hours per year. I'm in the category of about twelve hours a year, but it's mostly classic cinema movies.
So the show(s) I ended watching? Putin versus USA, Russia and the US Election. It was a two parter....approximately 52 minutes each....a documentary piece from 2017. I missed about five minutes of the first part, and flipped off about 25 minutes into the second part.
The basic story (this was an American documentary producer) here is that Hillary Clinton would have won the 2016 election, had it not been for Vladimir Putin and his vast help for Donald Trump.
Generally, I would say the team put a fair amount of work into this, interviewing at least twenty significant players in the Trump White House, some folks on the Hillary Clinton team, and a couple of political strategists.
They did lead folks through the basic introduction of the Ukraine mess and how it developed....probably missing about thirty minutes of real introduction on the EU and it's opportunity to bring Ukraine into the 'big deal'.
They did hype the whole WikiLeaks business and the various emails released. In just about every single case they mentioned....they did miss the fact that the Democratic National Committee had done a lousy job of protecting their data, and they did kinda leave out the bulk of the story over Hillary's bathroom email server. On the Hillary illness factor, it did surprise me that they gave it a good eight minutes of coverage, but it was mostly to note the over-dramatic angle of the whole story told, and never asking the magical question....what exactly was really wrong with Hillary's health?
Most Germans watching this....would have been totally in agreement and thinking the obvious that Putin is what got Trump into the White House.....nothing else could explain this logically.
The fact that the Russians paid roughly ONLY $100k for all the ads mentioned about 'fake news' on Facebook? Well....yeah, they did skip that part. The survey by the two college professors which noted by spring of 2017 that the bulk of fake news was readily forgotten within two weeks after reading? Yeah, that was skipped. The fact that a large segment never clicked on the fake news pieces via Facebook? Well, that was skipped too. At some point, I think I added up about twenty things that should have been brought up, and make for a complete story.
The problem is....the producer had this aim to only make a two-type show, and for anyone to have told the entire story....skipping the blame segment of Putin, you would have needed at least twelve hours for a decent documentary.
How many Germans watched the two-parter last night? I would take a wild guess here that fewer than 200,000 across Germany (of 82-million) probably watched the segments. Most of these folks (the intellectuals)....really need some reason to blame someone for the defeat of Hillary Clinton. The fact that roughly 42-percent of Democrats preferred Bernie Sanders? Well....yeah, it's best not to bring up the primary. The fact that the NAFTA negativity in the rust-belt is so great and Hillary's team never recognized that factor? Just another part to the bigger story.
I don't have much of a problem in that type of documentary being shown....especially on the ARTE Channel. But it's real value in terms of viewership? There were probably twenty times as many Germans watching 'Bones' and 'CSI-Vegas' as watching this Hillary documentary. And let's not even bring how many were watching The Simpsons or soccer.
Property Tax Story Update
In the past twenty-four hours, this story over property tax challenges to the German Constitutional Court (the Supreme Court of Germany) has moved up to one of the top three stories on the news. N-TV did a great piece this morning to bring all of the facts down to a simple story.
No one will argue about the whole German property tax law being an outdated and screwed-up method. The quiet and hidden truth is that they simply haven't wanted to update the law out of fear of what it'd do (mostly raise taxes on a fair number of folks, and create a housing shortage while people adjust to the new taxing scheme).
German homeowners are not paying property taxes over current market values....but a value adjusted in western Germany since 1964, and over in the former DDR (eastern Germany) it's an adjusted value going to 1935.
In every sense of the world....it's totally outdated and unfair.
The amusing side to this story is that this property tax is the money that goes straight to the community, village, town or city.....not via the financial funnel to Berlin and then coming back. Every single mayor can show you a chart of how much is expected now, and in five years. Every mayor who has house expansion (growth, construction) is sitting there and grinning because he's got X-number of houses coming up each year and adding to his tax-base. A great example in my region is Idstein, where a housing development for the past five years has added at least forty houses per year, and there's probably still another three-hundred houses to go.
Once a new tax scheme is created....whatever increased taxes occur....will be dumped upon the home-owners. If you owned two or three houses (a common investment scheme), then you would hand the cost of the tax increase down to the renters, so everyone in Germany would feel the brunt pain of an increase.
In some ways, this whole discussion in the court, will bring on a recession period and some tough dynamics that will stall the German economy for at least a year.
No one will argue about the whole German property tax law being an outdated and screwed-up method. The quiet and hidden truth is that they simply haven't wanted to update the law out of fear of what it'd do (mostly raise taxes on a fair number of folks, and create a housing shortage while people adjust to the new taxing scheme).
German homeowners are not paying property taxes over current market values....but a value adjusted in western Germany since 1964, and over in the former DDR (eastern Germany) it's an adjusted value going to 1935.
In every sense of the world....it's totally outdated and unfair.
The amusing side to this story is that this property tax is the money that goes straight to the community, village, town or city.....not via the financial funnel to Berlin and then coming back. Every single mayor can show you a chart of how much is expected now, and in five years. Every mayor who has house expansion (growth, construction) is sitting there and grinning because he's got X-number of houses coming up each year and adding to his tax-base. A great example in my region is Idstein, where a housing development for the past five years has added at least forty houses per year, and there's probably still another three-hundred houses to go.
Once a new tax scheme is created....whatever increased taxes occur....will be dumped upon the home-owners. If you owned two or three houses (a common investment scheme), then you would hand the cost of the tax increase down to the renters, so everyone in Germany would feel the brunt pain of an increase.
In some ways, this whole discussion in the court, will bring on a recession period and some tough dynamics that will stall the German economy for at least a year.
Tuesday, January 16, 2018
The Paving Stones Story
Northeast of Frankfurt....about a 25-minute drive, you have the city of Budingen....population of roughly 22,000 people.
If you go back about about six-hundred years....the folks there got awful defensive in nature. They built a walled city, towers, and even had an association for riflemen (which is still formed today and considered one of the oldest in the country). The Budingen folks were not to be intimidated with.
Somewhere along the way, they decided to use paving stones, and these stoned pavements are still around today.
Well....it got into the news this week that the mayor of the town wants to yank up the paving stones around the walled city area and replace it with regular old asphalt. There's been various complaints about the driving experience with the stones (it's not a friendly situation with bicycles), and some of the locals want a better surface.
Oddly enough, medieval supporters and historians have come out and voiced support to keep the paving stones. I'll admit, it's hard these days to find topics that medieval supporters will fight over and make a big fuss about, but the stone business appears to be such a topic.
Most cities have gone to concrete or asphalt, dumping the stone business. The good side of stones is that once you lay them....they might be there for a hundred years...maybe even longer.
What'll happen? It's hard to say. They actually get some folks to come out as tourists and visit the walled city (what is left of it today), and the paving stones are part of the landscape. My guess is that the medieval folks will win out in the end.
If you go back about about six-hundred years....the folks there got awful defensive in nature. They built a walled city, towers, and even had an association for riflemen (which is still formed today and considered one of the oldest in the country). The Budingen folks were not to be intimidated with.
Somewhere along the way, they decided to use paving stones, and these stoned pavements are still around today.
Well....it got into the news this week that the mayor of the town wants to yank up the paving stones around the walled city area and replace it with regular old asphalt. There's been various complaints about the driving experience with the stones (it's not a friendly situation with bicycles), and some of the locals want a better surface.
Oddly enough, medieval supporters and historians have come out and voiced support to keep the paving stones. I'll admit, it's hard these days to find topics that medieval supporters will fight over and make a big fuss about, but the stone business appears to be such a topic.
Most cities have gone to concrete or asphalt, dumping the stone business. The good side of stones is that once you lay them....they might be there for a hundred years...maybe even longer.
What'll happen? It's hard to say. They actually get some folks to come out as tourists and visit the walled city (what is left of it today), and the paving stones are part of the landscape. My guess is that the medieval folks will win out in the end.
Monday, January 15, 2018
The Property Tax Story
Its a page two story, but a fair number of Germans will be curious about what happens shortly. The German Constitutional Court is going to hear a case where a challenge is mounted over property tax (affecting roughly 35-million properties throughout Germany).
The suggestion here against the property tax is that it's unfair in terms of the relationship with the German Constitution (the Basic Law).
If you count up all the collected money via the sixteen German states....it amounts to thirteen billion Euro, a fair sum of money.
Even if you rent from some guy.....he's figuring his property tax into your rent money, and you are helping to pay it.
The unfairness issue? It's built to be progressive. That means that a very marginal property or house would be taxed at one rate, while a dynamic or highly valued property is taxed at a higher rate. The Constitutional doesn't really suggest a formula or a relationship, and some folks think this is the chance to force change upon the whole law.
ARD even pointed out on this issue....you could have two plots of property in different locations. One might still be assessed the value that it held in 1964, and the other the value of 2018.
There are various ways that the court could review and pass judgement. The worry for cities here....because it's their bread-and-butter money....if you say it's built totally wrong, then what happens? Typically the court would then turn to the Bundestag and say....write a new law within two years.
The odds that you might end up with a forced change and have to pay even more on the property tax? Well....yeah....that's been suggested and folks are a bit worried over where this might go. My guess is that if you live in a highly urbanized and metropolitan area....you likely end up getting screwed if they change the system, and probably end up paying double the property tax that you currently pay.
The suggestion here against the property tax is that it's unfair in terms of the relationship with the German Constitution (the Basic Law).
If you count up all the collected money via the sixteen German states....it amounts to thirteen billion Euro, a fair sum of money.
Even if you rent from some guy.....he's figuring his property tax into your rent money, and you are helping to pay it.
The unfairness issue? It's built to be progressive. That means that a very marginal property or house would be taxed at one rate, while a dynamic or highly valued property is taxed at a higher rate. The Constitutional doesn't really suggest a formula or a relationship, and some folks think this is the chance to force change upon the whole law.
ARD even pointed out on this issue....you could have two plots of property in different locations. One might still be assessed the value that it held in 1964, and the other the value of 2018.
There are various ways that the court could review and pass judgement. The worry for cities here....because it's their bread-and-butter money....if you say it's built totally wrong, then what happens? Typically the court would then turn to the Bundestag and say....write a new law within two years.
The odds that you might end up with a forced change and have to pay even more on the property tax? Well....yeah....that's been suggested and folks are a bit worried over where this might go. My guess is that if you live in a highly urbanized and metropolitan area....you likely end up getting screwed if they change the system, and probably end up paying double the property tax that you currently pay.
The Sports Car Story
There's a 39-kilometer autobahn piece existing between Frankfurt and Wiesbaden...referred to as part of A66. You can typically drive this in 35 minutes (at least on a good day). On a low-traffic day? You might be able to drive it in 30 minutes. Most of the autobahn piece is a controlled speed....meaning roughly a 100 to 120 kph speed is mandated. There's a few sections still left where it's unlimited, but cops will readily tell you.....you need to drive a safe speed.
So yesterday, German cops got called and noted two particular drivers. One was driving a Lamborghini (560 horsepower), and the other was driving an Audi R8 (610 horsepower). The two were racing against each other at speeds of 300 kph (186 mph).
Yeah, this proved to be a problem.
But the guys argued with the cops and said they weren't racing, and they were in the area of the autobahn which has no restricted speed.
Stupid behavior? Well....yeah. It's guys like this who screw up and typically trigger some five-car accident.
So yesterday, German cops got called and noted two particular drivers. One was driving a Lamborghini (560 horsepower), and the other was driving an Audi R8 (610 horsepower). The two were racing against each other at speeds of 300 kph (186 mph).
Yeah, this proved to be a problem.
But the guys argued with the cops and said they weren't racing, and they were in the area of the autobahn which has no restricted speed.
Stupid behavior? Well....yeah. It's guys like this who screw up and typically trigger some five-car accident.
Saturday, January 13, 2018
The Cop Story
It's a page five footnote type story which most Germans would miss.
With all that G-20 Summit riot business in Hamburg in the summer....the cops have been reviewing video and came to this one episode and have identified the guy who threw beer cans at police. It's a German policeman from Munich, who was on a vacation trip to Hamburg to visit a girlfriend.
Yeah, pretty serious business now.
There's a suspension involved for the guy now....his apartment searched, and he's been charged up with suspicion of attempted dangerous bodily injury. If convicted, he'd be out of a job totally, and spending a number of months in some state prison.
It's something you'd expect out of a twenty-year old kid in the profession....but this guy is 35 years old.
Affected by alcohol? One might suggest that but I doubt that the judge will be open to forgive the guy on that suggestion. Even if they found some way to lessen the charge and let him walk away, I kinda doubt that the Munich cops would keep the guy around. So a career change is likely to take place here.
With all that G-20 Summit riot business in Hamburg in the summer....the cops have been reviewing video and came to this one episode and have identified the guy who threw beer cans at police. It's a German policeman from Munich, who was on a vacation trip to Hamburg to visit a girlfriend.
Yeah, pretty serious business now.
There's a suspension involved for the guy now....his apartment searched, and he's been charged up with suspicion of attempted dangerous bodily injury. If convicted, he'd be out of a job totally, and spending a number of months in some state prison.
It's something you'd expect out of a twenty-year old kid in the profession....but this guy is 35 years old.
Affected by alcohol? One might suggest that but I doubt that the judge will be open to forgive the guy on that suggestion. Even if they found some way to lessen the charge and let him walk away, I kinda doubt that the Munich cops would keep the guy around. So a career change is likely to take place here.
Friday, January 12, 2018
Twenty-Eight Pages
The new coalition draft is a total of 28 pages....maybe a quarter of what a typical German government formation would be in draft form. That will be obvious to people, and make them wonder how long this government will last.
So today, the chief topics of the 28 pages came out:
Taxes: no new taxes. Yeah that was a shocker. Both sides (CDU and SPD) agreed to the end of the Solidarity Tax (it said in writing when started in the 1990s, that it would end in 2019). So they kept their word, it will actually end. I expect this no new tax scripted talk to last only through 2018, and be a major problem in 2019 and 2020.
Refugee policy: an odd decision. They came to a compromise which says that every month....up to 1,000 family members of immigrants in Germany....may bring their relatives here. So, a max of 12,000 a year. As for the general incoming number? They agreed to a range of 180,000 to 220,000 per year. Then they agreed that in the future....all asylum will be carried out in a central reception facility (yet to be described), and this facility would have decision-making ability and return facilities built into it. To me, it sounds like a magnet for pro-asylum folks to protest and make for problems. It was also agreed that only food and residence would be provided at this point, with NO cash benefits.
Health insurance. A new joint financing plan will be built for statutory health insurance. This means that it'll be equal....what you and your boss pays...equal amounts. Presently it was set to 14.6 percent for the boss, and you had roughly 15.6 percent.
Pension reform will occur. The present program will continue til 2025, then start to modify. A commission will form up to discuss this major change. A new special pension will come to exist for low-income wage earners...meaning some type of government funding will funnel in and help to raise their standard of living. This is a miserable part of German society today and a lot of these people are on welfare because there's simply not enough to survive. Eight-thousand new nursing or helper posts will be created to handle situations in nursing homes around Germany. This will come out of the German federal pot of money.
Employment: Long-term unemployed folks will get more attention and helped with retraining to get them into the market. Longer periods to pay the unemployment benefits? That was NOT agreed upon. Some agreement came over social security contributions.
Farming: The herbicide glyphosate will be slowly edged out of the market. The goal is to end the use....no one says the timing of this.
If you look at the limited nature of the twenty-eight pages...if approved by each general party, then I would suggest a somewhat quiet 2018 period with these goals laid out and most likely accomplished by spring of 2019. Then? Well....without any real structure, my guess is that 2019 (EU election coming up) will become a hectic year....full of drama....and lots of political chit-chat.
This is designed to just get folks over the 'hump' and viewing the mess as settled, and then after some quiet period.....launch into full political 'charming'.
My general prediction is that the two state elections in 2018 (Hessen and Bavaria) will see both the CDU and SPD losing a fair number of votes over what they had in 2013. The other parties will see numbers improve, and signal that the public is disenchanted with politics of the two central political parties.
The same likely occurs in 2019 with the EU election...thus shocking a few political analysts and the news media.
All in all....there's a limited amount of talk you can get out of twenty-eight pages and a sign of no real agreement between the two groups.
So today, the chief topics of the 28 pages came out:
Taxes: no new taxes. Yeah that was a shocker. Both sides (CDU and SPD) agreed to the end of the Solidarity Tax (it said in writing when started in the 1990s, that it would end in 2019). So they kept their word, it will actually end. I expect this no new tax scripted talk to last only through 2018, and be a major problem in 2019 and 2020.
Refugee policy: an odd decision. They came to a compromise which says that every month....up to 1,000 family members of immigrants in Germany....may bring their relatives here. So, a max of 12,000 a year. As for the general incoming number? They agreed to a range of 180,000 to 220,000 per year. Then they agreed that in the future....all asylum will be carried out in a central reception facility (yet to be described), and this facility would have decision-making ability and return facilities built into it. To me, it sounds like a magnet for pro-asylum folks to protest and make for problems. It was also agreed that only food and residence would be provided at this point, with NO cash benefits.
Health insurance. A new joint financing plan will be built for statutory health insurance. This means that it'll be equal....what you and your boss pays...equal amounts. Presently it was set to 14.6 percent for the boss, and you had roughly 15.6 percent.
Pension reform will occur. The present program will continue til 2025, then start to modify. A commission will form up to discuss this major change. A new special pension will come to exist for low-income wage earners...meaning some type of government funding will funnel in and help to raise their standard of living. This is a miserable part of German society today and a lot of these people are on welfare because there's simply not enough to survive. Eight-thousand new nursing or helper posts will be created to handle situations in nursing homes around Germany. This will come out of the German federal pot of money.
Employment: Long-term unemployed folks will get more attention and helped with retraining to get them into the market. Longer periods to pay the unemployment benefits? That was NOT agreed upon. Some agreement came over social security contributions.
Farming: The herbicide glyphosate will be slowly edged out of the market. The goal is to end the use....no one says the timing of this.
If you look at the limited nature of the twenty-eight pages...if approved by each general party, then I would suggest a somewhat quiet 2018 period with these goals laid out and most likely accomplished by spring of 2019. Then? Well....without any real structure, my guess is that 2019 (EU election coming up) will become a hectic year....full of drama....and lots of political chit-chat.
This is designed to just get folks over the 'hump' and viewing the mess as settled, and then after some quiet period.....launch into full political 'charming'.
My general prediction is that the two state elections in 2018 (Hessen and Bavaria) will see both the CDU and SPD losing a fair number of votes over what they had in 2013. The other parties will see numbers improve, and signal that the public is disenchanted with politics of the two central political parties.
The same likely occurs in 2019 with the EU election...thus shocking a few political analysts and the news media.
All in all....there's a limited amount of talk you can get out of twenty-eight pages and a sign of no real agreement between the two groups.
The Platform Story
I travel alot around in Germany via railway. All total, I would imagine that I've stopped at over two-hundred different cities, towns and villages via a train. Typically, there's one odd aspect that you come to recognize after a while....as you step off the the train....there are varying amounts of space between you and the platform. Sometimes, you are actually two feet above the platform....sometime, inches above the platform, sometimes inches below the platform, and sometimes even two feet below the platform.
So the question is begged....in a land where standards ought to exist....why so many variations?
Well, there are four basic answers.
1. For 150-odd years, no German ever wrote a basic standard for trains or platforms. I know, you'd think some idiot committee should have written a standard but they never did.
2. Someone came long in the 1970s and had this idea for development of double-decker trains, which meant you needed to lower the car closer to the ground, and it meant that the platform would be at least a foot....sometimes two feet....above the car-door.
3. While some stations modernized their platforms to meet new trains....others did absolutely nothing (mostly because of cost).
4. In the 1990s as the national and regional railway networks modernized....they often went out and bought trains which had unusual advantages or varying designs. Having a particular exit level....wasn't often on the list of priorities. Just in my local region, I'd say there are at least eight different train designs.
ARD (public TV, Channel One, in Germany) picked up the story today.
It's a great quote: "In Mainz there are 55 cm, in Leipzig also, in Mülheim, Neuss and Hamminkeln in North Rhine-Westphalia it is 76 centimeters. And then there are still platforms with 33 centimeters, 38 centimeters or even 96 centimeters."
The problem here is money. If you went to one single standard around the entire nation, it'd get into the billions to modernize all of the platforms to meet one single standard. No one really knows how to fund this. Just to suggest a twenty-year program to meet one standard....it'd scare the tax revenue folks to a great degree. The Bahn folks? They might take on a couple of projects a year in major cities to meet some standard, but it might take them decades if they said it was a 100-percent Bahn project. So the question is....would German states go and funnel money into this? The general answer is no.
Does it even matter? The local train stop for me is mostly a grassy area next to the tracks and a two-foot built up concrete area, with a covered area for rain, and one single machine for tickets. I would take a guess in the mornings....maybe sixty people (mostly kids) get on and ride into Wiesbaden. To get into the train, you have to step about 1.5 feet up, to get into the car. For older folks with limited mobility, it's an issue. When you arrive in Wiesbaden at the main station, then you find that you have to step about 1.5 feet UP, onto the platform.
The odd thing is then....same station, mind you....I might walk two platforms over to catch a train into Mainz and find that I need to step 1.5 feet UP (higher) to get into that train, and arrive in Mainz to find an absolutely level platform.
On my list of 10,000 things in Germany that probably do need fixing....I would be the first to admit that this is way down on the list. I might even rate it between number 3,000 and 4,000. It's just an odd problem which people note on a daily basis and continually pops up in your mind.
So the question is begged....in a land where standards ought to exist....why so many variations?
Well, there are four basic answers.
1. For 150-odd years, no German ever wrote a basic standard for trains or platforms. I know, you'd think some idiot committee should have written a standard but they never did.
2. Someone came long in the 1970s and had this idea for development of double-decker trains, which meant you needed to lower the car closer to the ground, and it meant that the platform would be at least a foot....sometimes two feet....above the car-door.
3. While some stations modernized their platforms to meet new trains....others did absolutely nothing (mostly because of cost).
4. In the 1990s as the national and regional railway networks modernized....they often went out and bought trains which had unusual advantages or varying designs. Having a particular exit level....wasn't often on the list of priorities. Just in my local region, I'd say there are at least eight different train designs.
ARD (public TV, Channel One, in Germany) picked up the story today.
It's a great quote: "In Mainz there are 55 cm, in Leipzig also, in Mülheim, Neuss and Hamminkeln in North Rhine-Westphalia it is 76 centimeters. And then there are still platforms with 33 centimeters, 38 centimeters or even 96 centimeters."
The problem here is money. If you went to one single standard around the entire nation, it'd get into the billions to modernize all of the platforms to meet one single standard. No one really knows how to fund this. Just to suggest a twenty-year program to meet one standard....it'd scare the tax revenue folks to a great degree. The Bahn folks? They might take on a couple of projects a year in major cities to meet some standard, but it might take them decades if they said it was a 100-percent Bahn project. So the question is....would German states go and funnel money into this? The general answer is no.
Does it even matter? The local train stop for me is mostly a grassy area next to the tracks and a two-foot built up concrete area, with a covered area for rain, and one single machine for tickets. I would take a guess in the mornings....maybe sixty people (mostly kids) get on and ride into Wiesbaden. To get into the train, you have to step about 1.5 feet up, to get into the car. For older folks with limited mobility, it's an issue. When you arrive in Wiesbaden at the main station, then you find that you have to step about 1.5 feet UP, onto the platform.
The odd thing is then....same station, mind you....I might walk two platforms over to catch a train into Mainz and find that I need to step 1.5 feet UP (higher) to get into that train, and arrive in Mainz to find an absolutely level platform.
On my list of 10,000 things in Germany that probably do need fixing....I would be the first to admit that this is way down on the list. I might even rate it between number 3,000 and 4,000. It's just an odd problem which people note on a daily basis and continually pops up in your mind.
Germans Worry About Housing
I noticed this mentioned today in Focus. It's a page two-type story, which would rarely get much mention in German society today.
The German Caritas Association (Catholic welfare organization) did a survey, which had surprising numbers.
Across German society....three out of every four people....fear housing costs.
It used to be normal for the low-income Germans to worry about rent, but the numbers indicate that even the middle-class now think about the cost of housing.
The term "weaken social cohesion" gets mentioned by the head of the survey (Peter Neher). The suggestion of the survey? There's a short list of things that political folks tend to worry about with the core voters (pension, taxation, child care, schools, etc). Well....affordable housing is now edging up to the point of being a national worry.
If drove around Frankfurt today....looking for a three-bedroom apartment....it might take a pretty long drive to find such an apartment that fell into what you'd perceive as affordable. That situation repeats itself across a lot of major German cities.
The German Caritas Association (Catholic welfare organization) did a survey, which had surprising numbers.
Across German society....three out of every four people....fear housing costs.
It used to be normal for the low-income Germans to worry about rent, but the numbers indicate that even the middle-class now think about the cost of housing.
The term "weaken social cohesion" gets mentioned by the head of the survey (Peter Neher). The suggestion of the survey? There's a short list of things that political folks tend to worry about with the core voters (pension, taxation, child care, schools, etc). Well....affordable housing is now edging up to the point of being a national worry.
If drove around Frankfurt today....looking for a three-bedroom apartment....it might take a pretty long drive to find such an apartment that fell into what you'd perceive as affordable. That situation repeats itself across a lot of major German cities.
Thursday, January 11, 2018
The Vest Story
This came up today via ARD (public TV, Channel One) here in Germany.
Back toward the summer of 2014, German cops in Wuppertal (a German town to the far north, 350,000 in population)....came up some individuals on a street wearing vests with 'Sharia Police' in lettering. Basically, the the seven vested guys were walking around and appealing to people they perceived as young Muslims to avoid drinking booze, gambling, or visiting the local brothels. Had they simply had the vests (yellow) on, with no writing....the cops would have just nodded and told them not to intimidate anyone. The problem was....according to regional law....you can't wear anything that is uniform-like to the cops or firemen. The lettering with the word 'Sharia Police' was felt to be illegal. So they got arrested and charged.
Yesterday, the district court of Wuppertal held their session and decided to acquit all seven guys of the uniform charge.
The prosecutor? The news folks say he was a bit frustrated. He says he'll appeal to a higher court.
How this came to an acquittal? Well...it appears that witnesses came up and noted that the men were not being aggressive and no one suggested fear or intimidation. There's also the suggestion by the court that law over the vests is too vague. The other problem is a German law that now exists....mandating you have to carry a yellow vest in your car.....so every single car owner is mandated to own a yellow vest.
The higher court acting? They might conduct a review, but this would take a minimum of a year. In a couple of months.....it'll be four years since the event occurred. Yeah, it takes that long for German law to act.
What'll happen now? I suspect as spring comes....a number of folks will appear on the streets of Wuppertal with vests that say 'Sharia Police', and continue their episode. It's possible that other groups will appear with 'Anti-Capitalist Police', 'Anti-Alcohol Police', and even 'Anti-Anti Police', and the locals will be shaking their heads over this yellow vest phonenum and too many people telling you what you should not do.
My general gut feeling is that most new migrants into Germany of a Islamic nature.....really don't have any desire to have vested Sharlia-Police characters standing in front of them and telling them what they can or can't do. Some of the Turks might even do a push-back routine....taking absolutely no intimidation from the vest crowd.
Back toward the summer of 2014, German cops in Wuppertal (a German town to the far north, 350,000 in population)....came up some individuals on a street wearing vests with 'Sharia Police' in lettering. Basically, the the seven vested guys were walking around and appealing to people they perceived as young Muslims to avoid drinking booze, gambling, or visiting the local brothels. Had they simply had the vests (yellow) on, with no writing....the cops would have just nodded and told them not to intimidate anyone. The problem was....according to regional law....you can't wear anything that is uniform-like to the cops or firemen. The lettering with the word 'Sharia Police' was felt to be illegal. So they got arrested and charged.
Yesterday, the district court of Wuppertal held their session and decided to acquit all seven guys of the uniform charge.
The prosecutor? The news folks say he was a bit frustrated. He says he'll appeal to a higher court.
How this came to an acquittal? Well...it appears that witnesses came up and noted that the men were not being aggressive and no one suggested fear or intimidation. There's also the suggestion by the court that law over the vests is too vague. The other problem is a German law that now exists....mandating you have to carry a yellow vest in your car.....so every single car owner is mandated to own a yellow vest.
The higher court acting? They might conduct a review, but this would take a minimum of a year. In a couple of months.....it'll be four years since the event occurred. Yeah, it takes that long for German law to act.
What'll happen now? I suspect as spring comes....a number of folks will appear on the streets of Wuppertal with vests that say 'Sharia Police', and continue their episode. It's possible that other groups will appear with 'Anti-Capitalist Police', 'Anti-Alcohol Police', and even 'Anti-Anti Police', and the locals will be shaking their heads over this yellow vest phonenum and too many people telling you what you should not do.
My general gut feeling is that most new migrants into Germany of a Islamic nature.....really don't have any desire to have vested Sharlia-Police characters standing in front of them and telling them what they can or can't do. Some of the Turks might even do a push-back routine....taking absolutely no intimidation from the vest crowd.
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
The Ypsilanti Story
I sometimes essay over politics in Germany, and how things have become 'muddled'. So this is one of those more unusual stories.
In regional Hessen politics....back in January of 2008...we had a state election. For the CDU, it was considered a dismal episode and most conservatives would like to forget that year. The CDU took 36.8-percent of the vote....down 12-percent over the previous election. The SPD shocked most folks that year by taking 36.7-percent (an increase of 7.6-percent over the last election).
Numbers-wise, the CDU won (yeah by the margin .1-percent), but to form a government, you need a coalition. Partner-wise, once the SPD said 'no', the path to a coalition was just about impossible. So as weeks passed, the coalition game was handed to the SPD (the second-place winner) to form the state government.
The SPD chief in charge? Andrea Ypsilanti.
Throughout this period in the fall of 2007....Ypsilanti had spoken to the suggestion of a SPD-Green-Linke Party coalition as NOT going to happen. The truth of the matter is that a fair number of the SPD members were absolutely open to Green partnering....but a fair number were NOT in favor of any coalition with the Linke Party. Folks felt that Ypsilanti's words were going to be kept.
So it was a shocker in this SPD effort to form a government....that she turned and said yes, there probably would be a SPD-Green-Linke Party coalition. Frustration was discussed throughout the state because folks weren't happy with this idea.
To make this a possibility....a group vote was required within the SPD Party, and one key member voted against Ypsilanti. This lead to a couple of downfalls, and by the end of that year.....Ypsilanti quit the SPD Party, and walked away.
This week, Ypsilanti got back into the news of Hessen, with a book discussing the state of politics in Germany, and "neoliberal capitalism." The book title? "And Tomorrow We'll Rule Ourselves".
Her chief comment? Ypsilanti says the SPD Party has turned itself away from the working-class voters, and now resembles to some degree the American-Democratic Party...appearing to represent various groups.
Her long-term view of the SPD? They need renewal. She voices support for the basic income idea, and more reductions for working-hours.
In her analysis....there's a marginal amount of alternatives in German politics today.
Will people care much for her opinion? She's been out of politics for almost a decade, and some younger members have no memory of her history. It might draw a debate, and open up some discussions about what's wrong in German politics today.
In regional Hessen politics....back in January of 2008...we had a state election. For the CDU, it was considered a dismal episode and most conservatives would like to forget that year. The CDU took 36.8-percent of the vote....down 12-percent over the previous election. The SPD shocked most folks that year by taking 36.7-percent (an increase of 7.6-percent over the last election).
Numbers-wise, the CDU won (yeah by the margin .1-percent), but to form a government, you need a coalition. Partner-wise, once the SPD said 'no', the path to a coalition was just about impossible. So as weeks passed, the coalition game was handed to the SPD (the second-place winner) to form the state government.
The SPD chief in charge? Andrea Ypsilanti.
Throughout this period in the fall of 2007....Ypsilanti had spoken to the suggestion of a SPD-Green-Linke Party coalition as NOT going to happen. The truth of the matter is that a fair number of the SPD members were absolutely open to Green partnering....but a fair number were NOT in favor of any coalition with the Linke Party. Folks felt that Ypsilanti's words were going to be kept.
So it was a shocker in this SPD effort to form a government....that she turned and said yes, there probably would be a SPD-Green-Linke Party coalition. Frustration was discussed throughout the state because folks weren't happy with this idea.
To make this a possibility....a group vote was required within the SPD Party, and one key member voted against Ypsilanti. This lead to a couple of downfalls, and by the end of that year.....Ypsilanti quit the SPD Party, and walked away.
This week, Ypsilanti got back into the news of Hessen, with a book discussing the state of politics in Germany, and "neoliberal capitalism." The book title? "And Tomorrow We'll Rule Ourselves".
Her chief comment? Ypsilanti says the SPD Party has turned itself away from the working-class voters, and now resembles to some degree the American-Democratic Party...appearing to represent various groups.
Her long-term view of the SPD? They need renewal. She voices support for the basic income idea, and more reductions for working-hours.
In her analysis....there's a marginal amount of alternatives in German politics today.
Will people care much for her opinion? She's been out of politics for almost a decade, and some younger members have no memory of her history. It might draw a debate, and open up some discussions about what's wrong in German politics today.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)