Seven German News Stories

 1.  Pretty wild story front-page story this AM....federal German police were active in NRW (North Rhine-Westphalia) yesterday.

Based on comments so far.....2 guys were planning a terror attack, that would have involved cyanide and ricin.  Detained by the police in Castrop-Rauxel. 

Where the hint of trouble came from?  All the news services say.....is that some other country led the German investigators to the group.

Nationality of the guys arrested?  One guy is Iranian.  Other has not been identified much. 

The only thing very unclear at this moment?  No one is saying where  the plans had reached or if this was an attack to occur very shortly.

More to likely come out of this story.  Based on the description of the cyanide/ricin in this....these two weren't just planning an attack on a couple of dozen folks.....this sounds like several hundreds were at risk (if not thousands).  

UPDATE:  FBI provided the data to the Germans which led to the arrest.  

2.  Political poll done....if an election were held at this point.....leader of the parties would be the CDU/CSU folks, at 27-percent.  SPD would barely cross the line at 20-percent.  Greens at 18-percnet.  FDP at 7-percent.  AfD at 15-percent.  Linke Party at 5-percent.  

Basically two things you can take from various trends politically.  First, the Linke Party is on the verge of becoming nothing (very likely to achieve less than 5-percent in the next fed election).  Second, the thrills or enthusiasm with the SPD Party are back to the way it was in 2018/2019/2020.  A fair number of their former voters have left the party for the Greens.  I would suggest in 2025 (next fed election)....the Greens will be at 2nd place, and the SPD Party will barely be at 17-to-18 percent in a national vote.  

3.  Just for reference....back at the height of the Covid issue....the German gov't made up a law that said if you worked in the med field or for a retirement home....you were mandated to have the Covid vax.  

Well....also at the peak, after this was placed into effect....roughly 270,000 Germans were given a warning of termination....that they weren't willing to vax up.  

It was noted by N24 news today....the vast majority didn't vax up, and presently (over a year later)....they are still employed.  You could make the statement....even if they did fire them.....they didn't have the manpower to fill the billets.

4.  WELT did an interview with Premier-President Winfried Kretschmann (Green Party)....head of the Baden-Wurttemberg state gov't.

So Kretschmann got onto the subject of pronouns and forced language.  He made a pretty blunt statement: "Otherwise we won't have a uniform spelling in the end". He openly pointed at particular politicians....that they were "masters at generating plastic words."

If I had to pick a country that just wasn't going to cooperate well on pronouns or forced gender language.....Germany would be at the top.  The minute you engage in a Du versus Sie discussion....you realize the complexity of the language.  The odds are that it'll be a full hour, with no real ending....just that you need Du and Sie to exist in German society.

5.  The natural gas reserves for the nation....currently at 90-percent level (mostly because of the mild winter).  The guys in charge have said that they are pretty confident in their ability to keep the nation open and no shortage of natural gas for industry or home use. But they also hinted strongly.....'save-save-save'.  

6.  Heilbronn district court had a pretty quick case to come up over Silvester fireworks use.  

30-year old guy was up on charges.  Besides the threat/use of fireworks (against police/fire crews).....he also resisted arrest and actually attacked the police when they tried to arrest him (bad move).  On top of that problem....he had a knife on himself, with a tear-gas cannister.

Apparently, the system in Heilbronn (in the state of B-W)....has the ability to ramp up a court session (in a matter of days, not months).

So this case wrapped up on Friday, and the guy was convicted on all charges.....to 9 months in prison....no time-off or probation.  I would suggest....if he hadn't resisted or fought the police, or had the knife....it might have been only two or three months of prison time.

I would also suggest that a fair number of Germans will ask why they can have quick-to-act justice.....like they have in Heilbronn.

Will appeals occur?  Yes, and they might have to re-work the entire case.  

7.  German state property tax offices are having a serious issue with the new property tax mandate.  The computer system is not working easily for owners to input the data (supposed to be a 30-min session to easily add data to the empty fields).  So Germans are showing up at county offices and demanding help.  The county offices were not manned to handle this much work activity.  

I will add....my wife (German property owner) attempted the computer input, and wasted around four hours of time....with the instructions not clear, and the system always unable to complete.  Massive amount of frustration occurred with this situation.  Finally, only by a conversation with another person at the fitness studio....did she get two bits of information about the data input, and how the system would agree with the numbers....did she finalize this in 15 minutes flat.  

Whole lot of blame to be put on the door step of the 'easy' software program, and lack of testing with non-literate computer people in German society.