1. Focus had a early AM piece discussing the impending property tax 'shock' to come in 2023. On average, they say, most German property owners will see a 20-percent rise in property taxes.
2. Two war stories over Russia this AM: (1) Putin says this about the oil price cap that the EU intends to push shortly.....on 1 Feb, he won't respect the price cap (for 5 months). So if you won't pay X-amount of what they believe is the market price....he won't sell it to you. Hint, it means a shortage of oil on the market, and it'll drive prices even higher. (2) Ukraine says in the past week, they've had literally hundreds of calls from Russian military folks or their wives, on how to surrender or give up. BS-factor? Some of this is probably BS, but most of these guys were just regular civilians a month ago, and not really trained for what Putin wanted them to accomplish.
3. Fairly strong indicators falling into place for a war-situation between Kosovo and Serbia.
4. Just odd, the pension 'insurance' system here in Germany ended up with a surplus of 2-billion Euro. How? Well....the way it's explained....Covid took out a bunch of people from the 'formula'.
5. If you go to any urbanized fire department or ambulance crew operation in Germany....they will tell you over the past decade....things have been hectic and violent in their professions.
Well....their 'association' has come up and suggested that it's time to write law that injects jail-time into the lives of those who harm/threaten them. No one says what the jail-time will be, but it wouldn't shock me if this ended up being a minimum of six months in a state jail.
A lot of this involving drugs or alcohol fueling the 'rage'? Oh yeah.....cops would say the same thing.
6. This 'Green Vault' robbery of diamonds in Dresden, which the authorities have recovered the bulk in the past week or two....has an interesting twist. It appears that a crime family 'clan' was behind the robbery. It also appears that the Remmo family 'boss' didn't really sanction this, and he got into the middle of the situation to talk a deal with the cops (out of Berlin).
7. There's a massive internal gov't fight going on about Covid now.
The FDP is pushing hard to end masking-up and to say the epidemic is over. The Health Ministry has a serious problem accepting this....mostly due to the staffing issues (illness and shortages).....plus hospital wards filling up with sick folks (mostly due to the flu).
There's going to be a state-fed combined meeting in early 2023, and this is the top subject.
Masking requirements presently? Fifteen of the sixteen states require masks on buses/trains. All of the states mandate masks in clinics/hospitals.
I do agree, there's a good bit of flu going around....but the Covid numbers are just not what they were in 2020 or 2021.
8. There's been a quiet 'push' to have just one single media library for public TV (ARD and ZDF combined for their 'assets' being available to the public). It makes economic sense.
Well...a statement came up from the ZDF director of operations. 'No' is his response. He thinks the two must continue to operate two totally separate media libraries.
A big deal? Over the past year, the wife and I have used the media library capability maybe three times. If you missed a program from public TV.....you can go back and find it. It is stupid that they run two costly library programs.
9. WELT has a curious article this AM....talking over the German environmental activist group ('Last Generation'). Something that has become obvious now....the bulk of the make-up (figured in the 1,200 range) are sons and daughters of fairly well-off people. WELT even used the term 'elite' for their description of these 'kids'.
So WELT asked the question....are the regular-path educated young people just not that hyped-up for the brand-name or mission created by Last Generation?
10. Via N-TV, GAZPROM (the Russian natural gas company) says it wants to repair one of the two Nord Stream pipelines....damaged several months ago in explosions.
The culprits of the damage? Never identified, and most of the efforts have led people to believe that the Russian gov't was NOT behind the damage.
This begs a lot of questions. But for repairs? Cost is figured at $500-million, and there's the issue of sea water damage to the interior of the pipe. Amount of time required to fix this? Journalists suggest a full-year.
Why GAZPROM might be interested? Well....eventually the war will end, and they'd like the income levels to return to normal. I would imagine the German gov't probably feels the same way. If I were a betting person....they will find that repairs to Nord Stream I aren't practical, and that only Nord Stream II makes sense....forcing the Germans to activate that pipe if the repairs are successful.
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