1 Mar 2024: Eight German News Stories

 1.  It's a funny story.

The German frigate “Hessen”, was packed up in the past week and sent on a mission to protect freighters in the Red Sea.

The Navy had to admit something yesterday.....they are facing a ammo problem. You see.....the main cannon onboard....requires a certain type of shell....which is no longer manufactured.

So when the stock on the vessel runs out.....the mission is finished.

Accusations?  Well...it's hyped  up...someone  in the German Defense Ministry kept their mouth shut....for a number of months.. As for how long the deployment lasts?  Unknown.

2.  Putin gave his 'state-of-the-union' speech yesterday....warning NATO against putting their troops into Ukraine.  Quote used: “These countries must understand: We have weapons that can hit them in their own country, This scenario could trigger the use of nuclear weapons.”

Yeah, German news discussed this a good bit.

If you asked me over Putin's intention?  I'd say some kind Electro-Magnetic-Pulse (EMP) situation over Kiev, and a hint that Europe might get the EMP 'dose'.  I think that would unsettle a fair number of people,  without even using a nuke.

3.  African Swine Fever 'zones' now in the Brandenburg region.

4.  US pushing to 'confiscate' 260-odd billion Euro of money from frozen Russian funds....to give to Ukraine.

Odds of this triggering a bigger mess?  Yeah.....but no one is really standing against the idea.

5. Several German states are trying to delay the 1 April start-up of legal cannabis sales.  Push is going on against the federal effort.

6.  Cops call in Herne in the state of NRW....say they found a pretty seriously injured man without a penis .  Old guy....66...in a awful lot of pain.

Cops still reviewing evidence and trying to get commentary out of the guy.

7.  Cops in Berlin are on a Red Army Faction terror hunt.....two remaining guys.  Cops have some strong idea....the two live in the Berlin area.

8.  If you remember the 'Naked Gun' movie business of the 1980s....it was highly popular with Germans.

Well....talk has started.....to  be done again, with Liam Neeson leading the effort.  

29 Feb 2024: Ten German News Stories

 1.  The European Parliament voted yesterday on whether all EU residents holding a 'health inspection/audit' every 15 years in order to keep their driving license. It passed. 

In case you were wondering....it's not just for cars and trucks...includes farm tractors,  scooters and motorcyclists. 

Lot of negative hype building up over this idea.

Would Germans doctor-shop?  Would Germans cross the border and get some doctor from Bulgaria to sign off their health inspection?  All speculation.

How many Germans would lose their license?  Unknown....no doctors, lawyers, journalists, or politicians are guessing here.  

One odd provision in the law....each country would write the 'rules' of this inspection or health audit.  No one in the SPD-coalition is talking much....I think most politicians would prefer a low threshold.  

It'll come up from doctors....they don't really have the man-hours to get intensive into this concept.

2.  Some speculation over this Red Army Faction gal (caught  by the cops)....that several weeks ago...some German journalist had fed pictures into a facial recognition system, and knew a month ago that she was living out of Berlin. Yeah, ahead of the police.

Odd piece on her....she actually had a Facebook account.  That's something I wouldn't have done....if hiding.

3.  Good quote: comes from Alexander Kekulé.....who  was a analytical expert on Covid challenges....now says that the Covid era...."acted like an accelerant for polarization.  The fact that increasing parts of society are drifting into parallel worlds that are no longer accessible will continue to concern us for a long time.”

I would agree....not just in the US,  but across German society as well....just seems to be a lot of people on a brain-fog turbo 'charge'.

4.  Bielefeld public library....locking up 60,000 books.  Arsenic problem noted.  Came from green dyes used in printing.  

5.  WELT had a Wed piece....talking over escalating taxation for young people, and suggesting that a lot of people will eventually discuss leaving Germany because of the eventual impact.

6. This draft EU bill on car repairs?  Basically, the draft written says something to the effect if a EU-registered gas/diesel car is over 15 years old....repairs are not deemed appropriate.   

Odds of passing? I'd say near 10-percent.

It would probably infuriate probably half the German population that.  It'd just create a black-market mechanic situation....where parts are procured in Turkey....sneaked into Germany, and cars are fixed illegally.  

7.  Just an odd story via several German news sources.....US CIA has a dozen 'secret' bases in Ukraine...probably going back to 2014.  Some skepticism....comes from Germans over this NY Times news item.

Just admitting that....means it advances the Russian 'blame-game'.   What were the dozen doing?  Unknown.  If this were true....how many CIA 'bases' in Germany?  This would trigger some Germans to ask this same question.  Whole Putin 'game' might divert away from Nazi-influence....to CIA-influence.  

8.  There are five Red Army Faction murders that are unsolved....still today, 30 years after they went and dissolved.  Some public discussion coming up over this question.

9.  German weather guys talking over past four months of 'winter'.....only two winters in recorded history of Germany have been 'milder' (over whole country), and that the amount of rainfall/snowfall is extreme.

I will agree...harsh start-up in November (most snow in my region in a decade).  But if you ask on heat-use since mid-December....man, it's been so mild that I put the heavy-duty jacket away, and just wore a vest and hoodie most of the time when outdoors.  Flurries?  I haven't seen any since first week of December. My salt-bucket?  I haven't dragged it out since late November.  

10.  Bahn guys (railway system) are now admitting as they close the books for 2023.....there was a financial loss.  Mostly due to the increased use....and that stupid 49-Euro monthly Bahn card.  Wouldn't shock me if the monthly rate goes to 59-Euro by early fall of 2024.

28 Feb 2024: Four German News Stories

 1.  Just an odd feature off Focus yesterday....story over a bakery, which doesn't start production until 11 AM....instead of 2 AM standard (for the normal baker).  Worth a read.

The big issue facing German bakers presently...lack of personnel, and Gen-Z folks just don't have an interest in getting up at 1 AM....showing up at work at 2 AM.  So in the case of this guy....applicants are no problem.

2.  Macron of France had some talk yesterday....NATO troops might be deployed into the Ukraine.

99-percent BS.   There's a limit to how far things can go.

3.  The EU is setting up a anti-money-laundering headquarters....to  be based out of Frankfurt.  I would  imagine various mafia groups are already lining up their insiders to get jobs within the operation.

4.  Frankfurt Airport came out and admitted that they typically run around 5,000 mouse-traps on a regular basis.

Red Army Faction Arrest?

 Well....yes.

RAF terrorist Daniela Klette was arrested this afternoon, in the Hanover region.

Klette would be 65 years old, and been in hiding since the early 1980s....when being active in the RAF.

Hiding in plain sight?  More or less....she used a fake document to get the lease on this apartment she was renting.

A third generation element?  Well....this is the odd part of the RAF.....each generation came in....went through five to seven years, and appear to have burned out.  The third generation is the last group....before the RAF dissolved.

The general belief?  There are two male RAF members still on the 'hunt-list', and it's believed that Klette and the two....were quietly robbing grocery store operations over the past 20 years to pay for their lifestyle.

Little is said about 'how' they came upon her.....my humble guess is that the fraudulent paperwork for the apartment attracted some kind of attention.  

A big deal?  It'll be talked about a good bit tonight, and for the remainder of the week.  

Her crimes and charges?  Two bomb attacks  (early 1990s), and around a dozen grocery and bank-transit robberies.....enough to hand her 20 years.  My guess is that they will offer a simple deal....admit to everything....tell the whole story, and get a 8-year sentence.  The fact that she never murdered anyone?  That might be her saving grace.

This still being front-page thing with RAF?  If you are over 60....you remember the bulk of 1970s/1980s action.  If you are less than 30....you know next to nothing.

27 Feb 2024: Eight German News Stories

 1.  The EU wrote up some regulation....if you hand a transfer to a bank/Paypal (within Europe).....they have to complete it by the end of next business day.  I'll just go and predict virtually all of them double up the pricing on transfer of money within six months.

2.  Focus did a fairly decent introduction  to Gov Kristi Noem....of the state of South Dakota....highly chatted now to be the possible VP of Donald Trump.  First time I can recall her name being mentioned around Germany.

3.  Some chatter around the Bundestag to bring minimum wage to 14 Euro.  Probably won't occur this year.....but since 2025 is an election year....I'd give it a 75-percent chance of passing then.

4. Hungary approved Sweden's entry into NATO.  Last point  required.

5.  Bavaria (the state) is looking at state laws, and likely to pursue halting cannabis sales/use (at least within Bavaria).  Only state discussing this option.  Positive of this?  Illegal sales would still continue on in Bavaria.

6.  Chancellor Scholz said 'no' on the question of providing Taurus air-launched missiles to Ukraine.....saying it'd cross a line and make Germany a more-willing participant in the war.  

7.  The Tesla factor in Grünheide is threatened with a halt on production....accusation is....some type of unique water pollution going on.  If true?  They'd have to figure out what, then devise a 'fix'....meaning a minimum of a month or two of a shut-down.

8.  News opened up last night and talked of a freighter arriving in Hamburg with BYD E-cars.  So the BYD gimmick is that it's made in China....is the ultra-cheap models start off around $12k, and the more attractive E-car model is around 20,000 Euro.  Yeah, this up-tick is probably scaring VW and BMW a good bit.   Theres supposed to be a couple of these special freighters built....so the idea is that more E-cars will be delivered.

26 Feb 2024: Five German News Stories

 1.  Starting From July.....if you are a landlord in Germany and offer up a cable TV connection to tenants....the law will evolve.  New interpretation?  You can't pass the cost to the renter.  Other than just raising the rent to cover this....it's hard to figure how this will change.

2.  In my local region of Eltville (along the river), there was a Sunday vote to occur....deciding among the residents if three areas overlooking the river....will be allow to have wind-generators.  Last vote (3 years ago) was solid 'NO'.  

Results from yesterday's votes?  57-percent voted to allow  the wind-generators.  

3. Interesting piece off N-TV news yesterday.....on E-car pricing.   Basically, there's hard times hitting dealers.  So what the news says....you can easily expect a 5,000 to 7,000 Euro discount, and if you really push it....even up to 10,000 Euro off.

Will this change the trend and get people all hyped-up to buy the cars?  I'd have doubts.

4.  Speech over the weekend by CDU's 'boss' (Merz)....the right-of-center party comment was that if farmers continue block traffic and burn tires in public....the CDU will withdraw support to the farming community.

Just an odd feeling here....he probably lost farmer votes.  It's not a big number but in some districts....it mattered.

5.  From the Sunday night public forum show....'Caren Miosga', they had a long discussion over AfD politics and the situation in Thuringia (they will have a state election in the fall, and AfD is figured to win).

Bodo Ramelow (Premier-President of Thuringia) gave a talk and the key quote was “The whole of Germany is scared of Thuringia.”

25 Feb 2024: 9 German News Stories

 1.  City of Marburg is to hold a vote (public situation).  Idea is to cut in half all car traffic within the city by 2035.  

What likely comes if it passes?  Most businesses in town will report decreases in revenue/customers, with city tax revenue seriously affected.  Trying to recover....they will find that even by dumping the traffic law....customers have found alternate places (outside of Marburg) to give their business to.  

But....this is the thing, you need to allow communities to experiment, and prove ideas are smart or harmful. 

2.  Growing your own cannabis legally (in Germany)?  From 1 April on....you can have up to three Cannabis plants in your house.  

If you have a fourth plant?  You are violating the law, and the cops can confiscate your plant.  Could you give the plant to a neighbor or friend (over 18)?  Yes.  

3.  Just an odd story out of Chemnitz.  Back on Friday....some German doctor was in a parking garage....having parked his car and going to the stairway.  Encounters two 'punks' (Iranian and Syrian kids....13 and 15)....with them demanding money.  Doctor says 'no' and moves to just advance....they end up pushing him down a stairway....fair amount of injuries.

It's safe to say he'll be on recuperation for a couple of weeks.  Cops got the two young gentlemen, but the most they will probably get is some young detention 'jail' for a year.  

4.  Someone added up the troop strength of Russia in Ukraine, and they say there's more Russian conscripts in the country.....than the first month of the war.  

5. Green Party talking up some idea of hundreds of billions of Euro for infrastructure projects for Germany in the future.  Where the money would come from?  Unknown.

6.  N-TV news had a piece.....suggesting the hyped-up trend of Germany E-Scooters has finally occurred, and on-the-street rentals will drop over the next year.

7.  Outgoing 'boss' of NATO (Stoltenberg) says within 2 years....Ukraine will be a member of NATO.  Mostly BS....I can see at least two members of NATO being problems to get this done.

8.  WELT piece: Germans pay 41-perent more for energy (power, natural  gas, oil) than before the 'war'.

9.   N-TV item this AM: Fentanyl has finally arrived in Germany and generally noted by the police.

24 Feb 2024: Four German News Stories

 1.  Good piece out of Focus today: "Pawnbroker sarcastically: “I should actually be grateful to the government.”

Just a lot of turnover in pawnbroking in Germany over past year.  Fair number of Germans are barely making it.

2.  Cannabis law?  It passed yesterday.

Legalization will occur on 1 April.  Now if you ask the experts....no one expects cities to have the process ironed-out...licenses ready to issue, or even enough legit weed to sell.

If you were asking me on local stuff (Wiesbaden)...I doubt that any shop appears until mid-summer.  Frankfurt?  There might be two or three open by the end of April.

Now, if you ask....how many Germans smoke cannabis occasionally (at least once a month)?  The survey suggest in the 4-million range out of 84-million residents (gov't says this statistic).  If you ask the cannabis associations....they say it's closer to 9-percent....meaning 7.5-million.  

Explaining the difference?  I think the gov't number infers something about the number of police arrests/busts, and just a wild guess.  It will also differ in regions.  If you went to Offenbach (Frankfurt's neighborhood)....it's probably closer to 40-percent of people between age 18 and 45.  In a more rural area....it might be fewer than 3-percent.  

All a shock to some Germans?  This legalization has been discussed for over forty years.   In cities like Hamburg or Koln...if you held some referendrum....it would have passed a dozen years ago.

3.  WELT reports around 5,600 Ukrainians are on some suspect list for illegally getting social-help money.  Investigation business will probably consume tens of thousands of man-hours. Whether they recover the money?  I doubt it.  

4.  Someone asked Google Artificial Intelligence (AI) to show German Nazis....in a 'painting-like' situation.

It produced black Nazis.

The Google team is marginally explaining how this is possible (they say code is supposed to show 'diversity'), and Germans themselves are having a laugh over the production.  

Historically-speaking....they might have been one or two Africans in some position...wearing a German uniform....maybe in Libya/Tunisia...during WW II. 

23 Feb 2024: Nine German News Stories

 1.  Up until this week, Brandenburg region had a record  for rainfall established and sitting since 1948.  This week....the winter rainfall has been added up, and broke the old record.

Even in my region around Wiesbaden, if you count the massive snow in November...we are probably around 120-percent for winter rain/snow mix.   

However, I'll point this out....drought conditions for spring/summer of 2023?  There were around 21 weeks of almost zero rain  (one single storm in that period that dropped a quarter-inch of rainfall).  For about 3 months, I didn't have to mow the lawn.

2.  There had been a plan to contract out German soccer league (both the first and second league) games to a commercial operation, and they would sell the content beyond the German border.  Back in January, this was hyped-up and two companies were in the biding 'war'.  Amount being discussed?  1-billion Euro for the two leagues.

Well...both bidding companies have dropped out.  Varying reasons....some relate to fans not happy over the deal.  But if you gauge viewers in China.....which would have been a major part of this.....dismal economic conditions are in play as well.

It would appear....all of the clubs were hoping on the cash distribution....so it hurts.

3.  All this effort to pass cannabis legalization?  Well....both the FDP and CSU parties have said 'nein'.  So the Greens and SPD.....desperately need either the CDU or the AfD Party to step up and support the effort.

If this fails?  I'd say around 20-percent of the nation will be disturbed how they were led along for the past two years.

Big vote?  Friday afternoon at the Bundestag.

4.  Thursday storm warnings?  If you lived in the northern third of Germany....160 kph winds.

5.  Some meeting yesterday at the EU.....representatives of 73 big-name companies (17 different sectors) told the EU that if their Net Zero carbon plan proceeds...there will be a massive downturn of their companies (hint: jobs) to occur.  The word 'wipe-out' was uttered.

To be honest, I doubt if the EU on their Net Zero plan had ever considered industry or jobs when discussing Net Zero creation.  

6.  Just a weird story.

There was this professor with a German university  up in Göttingen (2 hours driving north of Frankfurt)....who got dragged into court.

Accusation?  Basically, he wanted doctoral students to allow him to beat them naked.   

Apparently, the doctoral students to some degree.....agreed,  then reported the incident.

Court heard the case. Agreed....totally illegal.  They gave the guy 18 months of a suspended sentence (two students involved).  

What the guy said in his defense....something to the effect that he was preparing the ladies for future employment.  

7.   Mercedes had a strategy where most all of its production would be E-car related.  Yesterday, they said....they had evolved....gas cars would get a higher priority.  Not direct, but I suspect they are figuring out that the bulk of Germans  just won't go to E-cars.

8.   The planned target of Germany's economic growth this year?  It was 1.3 percent.  They announced yesterday....at best, it will ONLY be 0.2 percent. 

9.  There is some build-up of consumer chatter in Germany....if you make any food that has even marginal alcohol in it....you need to have labeling  on the product.  

My 'Luxury' Mercedes

 Around 1993, I was stationed at a base in Germany that was under a closure plan.  My boss....a Major....came up and offered this amazing deal.  For $120....I could get what was practically a new satellite dish/receiver unit and a car.

The Major's car was referred to in the shop as the 'beast'.

So he'd arrived about 15 months prior, and gotten this great apartment near the base, and the landlord asked if he needed car.  He drove the Major over to this farmhouse, and showed the 'beast'.  It came with a legendary story.

It was a complete deluxe Mercedes 450 executive car....fully loaded....leather seats....from 1978.

So, the car was originally his dad's car.  Two years into ownership....dad had some heart attack in some pub.  The car was driven back to the house, but his mother was a non-driver.  So it sat there in the yard for about a year.

Eventually, the landlord moved it to a barn, and there it sat until 1992. No prep....no wash of road-salt accumulation. Driver's side (front/rear)....affected by rust.

The two threw in a new battery and spark plugs....car cranked up, and the Major bought it 500 DMs ($250).    Body-wise?  It was in rough shape and should have failed the vehicle test (the Major talked the inspector into missing the problems).  I doubt that it had more than 50,000 km on it.  Interior?   Absolutely perfect.

So I bought the satellite/receiver unit and the car....for $120.  

For about a year, I was extremely proud of the 'beast'.  I bought a new panel/fender to replace the rusted ones, and the inspection guy had no issues.  Yeah, it was a V8 and burned a ton of gas weekly.  It was a car made for the autobahn.

Somewhere around the 18th month...the axel broke.  I thought I could find a mechanic who'd take it on as a project.....but they were all just saying to give it up.   

22 Feb 2024: Eight German News Stories

 1.  Focus had an excellent piece on electrical prices in Germany.  For those who weren't aware....the current price per KwH is 36 cents...down about 8 cents from this period last year....but for most Germans, it's still high.

It's about double what it was in 2011.

Chief reasons?  Focus gives several, but I tend to rate two as dynamic and critical: each time it goes up....the VAT tax increases.  Adding to this burden....you not only pay for power, but for the C02 certificates that the power company has to buy.

If you engage with a German on the topic....it'll open up a 30-minute discussion...which they tend to be bitter about.  They will also cite each angle they've attacked this....buying newer refrigerators, newer washers, LED bulbs, etc.  Most will say since 2000...they've cut consumption by 50-percent....but watched pricing double.

Then if you bring E-cars....this encourages chatter over how they can afford the power bill by 2030...if it's near 55 cents a KwH, and this E-car business is dropped upon them.

2.   For the Tuesday public forum (on ARD, Channel 1)....the Maischberger Show...the topic was defense and the Ukraine-Russia war. They dropped two political folks on opposite ends..... Amira Mohamed Ali of the BSW Party, and  FDP Party defense expert Marie-Agnes Strack-Zimmermann.

You can watch here.

I'll just say that it got awful intense, and you got a lot of talk of pro-Russia/anti-Russia.  The spectrum over the past year has changed a good bit, and I'd say a quarter of the German population is not really focused on the Ukraine anymore.  

3.  When some German uses the term 'Besserwisser'...it's a criticism comment and kinda meant to be something fairly negative.   I'd translate it into 'know-it-all'. 

4.  For those who didn't know....Germany has a number of rigid rules about night-time flights of helicopters and in poor-weather situations.

The DRF air-rescue folks are asking for some attention over this matter, and having the rules changed.

It's one of those odd topics that probably will draw attention in the Bundestag and force some type of evolution on night-time operations.

5.  The Green Party is coming against  mass distribution of credit cards for asylum folks.  Most German states want the program implemented....with both the CDU/CSU  folks and the FDP Party also supporting the program.  

6.  Focus science report on Covid:

Six to fifteen percent of people are now figured to suffer from long-Covid. Then they found this odd thing going on....they now say Covid can possibly stop the release of dopamine in the brain.  Meaning....this is what give you motivation and 'pleasure'....so you might be affected, and grumpy a fair amount of time.

If you asked me to assess myself in the past 3 years (3 bouts of Covid), yeah, I am more grumpy than usual.

7.   Some article came up in Focus....German 'experts' say you should regularly throw underwear out each year (after a year of use).  Don't know where this came from or how Germans would react.  Most older German guys won't throw nothing out until it's got holes in it.

8.  Lot of hype over the FC Bayern soccer team coach (Tuchel) in the past week.  Team has given him notice....end of season, he's gone.  On the prime news from  last night....they spent about 90 seconds talking over the issue (out of the 15 minute telecast).

21 Feb 2024: Seven German News Stories

 1.  It's just strange...virtually every grocery in my region (central Germany) has spring plants up for sale....maybe for 3 weeks now.  We haven't even reached the last day of February yet.  Hasn't been a freezing temperature in at least eight weeks.

Oddly enough, Bavarian state health authorities  put out a warning.....ticks are now in season and a threat (yes, even in this mild winter).  

2.  The EU says they are busy designing E-box rules for how home charging stations will be regulated or mandated in the future.  I would imagine....by 2030....virtually every house will have to have such a box....even if they don't have an E-Car.

3.  In Munich back in early 2021....some Austrian investor guy came up to some buildings (Sendling region) and bought them up.  He went to the commercial folks renting these and gave them eviction notices...cafes, bars, etc.  Game plan, as they left....he'd tear them down and build luxury condos.

Well.....as Focus told the story today....the guy has up and disappeared.  The commercial companies with the eviction notices?  They are asking questions and none of the authorities have any idea where this guy is.

Some people believe that the luxury condo prices that this guy dreamed of....back 6 to 8 years ago...currently don't exist, so there might not be any profit...even if they tore stuff  down and erected a whole new structure.

4.  NTV poll.....AfD lost another point, now down to 17-percent.  CDU/CSU still leads....30-percent.  SPD in 3rd place with 15-percent.

5.  About a month ago in Wiesbaden....several groups of students in some vocational program (meaning they are in the 15 to 18 year old range)....were herded into a theater...with 3 teachers, to watch a film called "Wannsee Conference". 

For reference, it's a 2022 docu-drama, that explains out the meeting held in early 1942...in the suburbs of Berlin, where Nazi leadership discussed what they would do with the Jews.  

I should add two curious things about this conference.  First, it was scheduled and cancelled at least twice, because of ongoing war events.  Second, the entire conference took approximately 90 minutes.  If you were to go and dig through the whole agenda and the output (a conference document)....it would almost seem that having 15 ranking members of the government was not necessary, and that the document was almost certainly pre-written....to say that everyone in the group agreed to what the 'boss' of the meeting wanted to achieve (end of the Jews in Germany, and throughout Europe).

So back to this Wiesbaden class group (60 of them watching).  As the 108-minute concluded....a couple of juveniles in the group applauded.   

This triggered an investigation....identifying those who applauded, and the school suspended the folks for two weeks.  Adding to the event....the Wiesbaden public prosecutor office got a call and will apparently investigate the accused for sedition. 

A serious right-wing thing with the juveniles?  You can't conclude much of anything off what's been reported so far.  I've watched the movie under discussion...it is overly dramatic.  The event concludes with a Nazi 'stamp' on the act of deporting Jews to concentration camps, and what amounts to death sentences. 

6.  NTV piece this AM.....Germany has approximately 1.1-million Ukrainians registered in the country.  Around 320,000 who were registered.....have left.  

7.   Dacia, the Romanian company that makes fairly cheap but decent cars....has a new offering...the 'Spring'.  Yeah, it's a E-car.

Range?  220 km.  Cost?  Well...they say it'll be in the 20,000 Euro.  

Dacia build decent vehicles....at a lesser price.  I won't say it's the type to be around in 20 years...but if you just wanted a 5-year car, they generally meet your expectations.  This is their first E-car though.

Germans Without TV?

 It is a curious statistic....5-percent of all German homes have NO TV.  

I watched a documentary piece a few years ago, and they were interviewing several Germans without a TV.

So, as an example....there was a intellectual couple (retired teachers) who were in their late 60s, and all they had in the house was one single radio.  It was pretty much set to one station...a public station that offered up limited news, classic literature, and opera music.  They seemed rather happy, and the impression I got....on a stress-meter (1-to-10)....they were absolutely near '1'.

Another example came up.....a late 30's guy with a daughter (around 12).  No TV...just a radio.  They panned the room...one enormous wall unit with at least 200 different games (board games, card games, etc). 'Dad' commented that he didn't need the stress that TV brought.

I'm not saying this is a large group or expanding....just that it's an oddball group who believe TV doesn't offer any plus-up to society.  

20 Feb 2024: Five German News Stories

 1.  Last night on German TV chat forums....was the ARD (Channel 1, public TV) show....'Hart Aber Fair' (live). 

So the topic?  German soccer, and if it's financially a 'mess'.  Yeah, it was a weird topic, and I would imagine about 50-percent of the typical audience turned it off.

What I'll say....having watched about half of the show....the moderator screwed up royally by having too many guests, with a wide variety of opinions.  The round-table?  With the moderator....eight.

The big league of soccer in Germany has a lot of ownership....who used to believe that their teams were cash cows, with the prices of players and a peak on media attention....the ownership has grown frustrated.  Maybe if you were a hyped-up sports fan....the discussion was worth hearing.  Most Germans just want to watch soccer, and not get all into the money-angle.

2.  Over the past weekend, ZDF (Channel 2,public TV) ran a news type show called 'Berlin Direct'.  One of the segments had to deal with the Economics Minister (Habeck, Green Party), and the shutdown of nuclear power-plants around Germany (in 2023).  

You can watch the segment here. It's segment three, about a 7-minute 'talk'.

What I'll say is that it's fairly critical of the nuke power shutdown, the rising cost  of alternate electrical power, the affect on industry (price-wise), and blame dumped on the Green Party.

I'll just say....you can go back and find plenty of blame to dump on various other political parties...it's not just a Green Party thing (for the shut-down).

As for the cost angle?  Here's the deal....once they said they were shutting nuke power down....to make up for what solar/wind could not provide....the answer was Russian natural gas power plants.  Well....once the war started and Russian natural gas (cheaply sold) was turned off....the situation was screwed-up.  If you were a German company needing a fair amount of electrical power....your bill went up drastically.  So the reaction now?  Why stay in Germany?  You might as well plan to move to Poland, or Czech.....for cheaper power.

So this 'hit-piece' got the Green Party all disturbed and they came out Monday....blasting about the unfair nature of the article, and how ZDF portrayed them.

Lot of theatrical chatter....with the obvious landscape...virtually all of Germany's neighbors still have nuke power.

3.  I was watch BR (Bavaria public TV) news this AM.  A number of successful cafes are heading toward shut-down mode.....mostly because they can't find 'hired' help for the staff.

4.  Lufthansa ground staff on strike today.

5.  Court case opened in Bavaria....American  male tourist brought up on murder charge....from spring 2023...near the bridge overlooking the Neuschweinstein Castle.  

Defendant did confess to the crime at day one.  It will end up being a fairly short case.

19 Feb 2024: Four German News Stories

 1.  Fair amount of 'Grey Wolves' chatter yesterday.  If you aren't familiar with them....it's a right-wing element of Turks....mostly drawn to Erdogan's strategies.  German gov't now says around 12,000 of these 'extremists' exist in Germany.  Some suggestion (whether factual or not), that they have infiltrated into city/state government offices.  

2.  Saturday to Monday....Discover Airlines (son of Lufthansa)....on strike.  A low-budget vacation airline.

3.  Court in Berlin (city court) has come out and said 'holiday' apartment rental (where you had an extra apartment or two to rent)....is now legal (again).  City government had attempted to say 'no'.....that you couldn't rent out apartments day to day.

4.  It's one of those odd commerce developments over the past decade in Germany....Turkish-run shisha pubs/bars. Even around Wiesbaden, I'd take a guess that a dozen (295k population) are operating.   

So the shisha industry is now developing a worry about business.  The German government after literally hundreds of 'raids'/audits....has come to realize that unlicensed/untaxed tobacco is being brought into the country.  So they (the gov't) wants strict packaging regulations.  Also, like you'd expect....they are now talking about another tax on water pipe tobacco operations. 

So the 'industry' is up in arms....'its not fair' being uttered.

18 Feb 2024: Dozen German News Stories

 1.  Ok, this is a weird police story.

German police patrol out at night...comes to a forest area parking lot in the area of Salzhemmendorf (far north Germany).  Here's a guy....acting kind of suspicious.

They want to see his trunk....which he cooperates and opens it.  They find two large plastic bags.  I know what you are assuming...cannabis or weed.  But no...it's wild garlic.

The German admits...he came from Gelsenkirchen to get wild garlic.

So the cops inform him of the state law for this....the 'hand bouquet rule'.  It basically says....you can only take what would fit into your hands.  Beyond that....it's illegal.  Course, they see the two bags and believe the guy is a commercial cook.

The charge here?  Possible violation of the Federal Nature Conservation Act (a misdemeanor). All because of public property.

2.  The Economics Minister (Habeck, Green Party) and the Finance Minister (Lindner, FDP Party) are having talks.  They are trying to invent some tax credit for companies to stimulate growth...but to accomplish this....they want to increase the sales tax (the VAT).  The rumor is that the VAT would go up 1.3 cents....to make this possible.  

Presently, the VAT is at 19-percent.  Most EU members have a VAT of 20 to 22 percent.....so they believe going up will be acceptable to the public. 

3.  Some story came up....I give it a BS-factor of '5' (1-to-10).....saying that via WELT....Chancellor Scholz halted some agenda that would allowed Ursula von der Leyen (present President of the EU and former German Defense Minister) from becoming the future NATO Secretary General.  I should add...von der Leyen was a CDU Party 'player'.

The story goes....that the SPD Party wants former Dutch PM Mark Rutte for the NATO 'boss' job. 

4.  WELT piece: Around 48,000 German attempts were made in 2023 to deport failed asylum seekers.  Out of the 48,000.....two-thirds of the attempts failed....meaning less than 16,000 were successfully deported.

This is just another example of people view the policy of the federal government as mostly failed. But fixing this?  It's anyone's guess where it'll lead onto.

5.  Last night in Den Hague, Netherlands....riot started up....cars burned, bus set on fire, and at least one police car heavily damaged.  Groups? Well....it's the pro-Eritrean (for the dictator-government) versus the anti-Eritrean (against the dictator-government) groups.  Cops in the middle.  

Same issue brewing in Germany with the two groups existing.  Some belief that the pro-Eritrean group is financed in some way by the dictator government. 

6.  Chancellor Scholz has set an agenda up...no nuke weapons development by the EU.  A lot of his talk is based over history.

7.  Germany estimates for 2023....for 'black work' (meaning work done under the table, often by illegals)....the amount in this market is near 463-billion Euro.  This is effort done to avoid social taxes, and government regulation.  I should add...this is a ball-park number....there is no factual way to prove the 463 number.

8.  German Minister of Defense (Pistorius) made a speech yesterday (Sat)....saying that he expects decades of Russian 'threats' to Europe.

Curious note, Pistorius also said that NATO 2-percent goal (of the GDP) for spending defense?  He says that might not be ENOUGH.  So he's hinting, Germany might have to go to 2.5 to 3 percent.  

They marginally met the 2-percent goal for 2024...spending money that the revenue pot did NOT have, so I seriously doubt this idea goes far.

9.  The new Union of Values Party had their first 'big' meeting...onboard a Rhine cruise ship yesterday.  They intend to fill a void (or remake the political spectrum) between the AfD Party and the CDU/CSU Party.

Humble guess.....for the fall of 2025 federal election, I might guess them getting in the 5-to-7 percent range.  If you were in the AfD Party and felt some 'shame'....well, this group is legit, and at least a full-step or two right-of-center...something that the CDU-CSU folks can't brag about.

10.  Free Voter Party having it's big meeting this weekend.  Key chatter?  No unity or agreement with AfD politics.  However, the Free Voter Party wants enforcement of asylum laws....to include deportation of failed applicants.  On national polling, they probably won't go past 3.5-percent.  They might also attract AfD disgruntled voters.

11. VW is building up production in Mexico....1-billion dollar set to flow in for their project.  Since they packed up in China....this makes sense.  

12. Final part of German cannabis legislation to be ironed-out.  Key item on the list?  How much can you smoke and still drive a car?  Generally, in almost every accident that occurs in the future....I can see where the German police arrive and demand everyone do a THC test.  

Example of Inflation

 My wife and I ended up last night at a local Turkish 'grill' shop.  So the topic of cost comes up.

A plate of Doner (shaved beef) with pommes (fries)....now runs 12-Euro.  Add a water, and you are almost up to 14-Euro.  

This back in 2020?  It would have been around 9-Euro.  

Food, heat, electricity, and wages....all escalated.  

The same plate (with water) back in 1984?  You probably would have paid around 8 Deutsch Marks ($4).

This is one of those funny topics to get into.  There's no doubt....Germans are cutting back on expenses, and eating out less.  The number of restaurants in this village we went to?  Back in 1984....there were probably a dozen establishments.  Today?  Six.  

The odds that the Doner plate  will go from 12-Euro to 15-Euro within two years?  Oh,  I'd give it a 90-percent chance.   

17 Feb 2024: Two German News Stories

 1.  I briefly read over this EU (summary) study of economic conditions in the EU and the German forecast (serious downward spiral predicted).  One curious aspect....they aren't talking about a one-year recession period....they are suggesting a multi-year period of serious recession.

The key components to bring it to this point?  Energy has become a high-cost item (mostly because of the war in Ukraine, where Russian natural gas isn't available to Germany anymore).  Because of this key situation....German companies are looking at moving operations out of the country (Poland gets mentioned a lot these days).

2.  The German Constitutional Court has handed a problem back to the Bundestag, and said you need to write legislation to cover this issue....giving them basically a year to figure a 'fix'.

Issue?  Muslim child marriages, and how (if) Germany can accept them (on migration efforts).

Personally, if you had to pick a topic leading into an election year....this is one of those that I suspect most of the political parties have zero interest in.

16 Feb 2024: Twelve German News Stories

 1.  WELT piece from yesterday, Justice Minister Buschmann (FDP), promises that if you are German and anti-Semetic or anti-Israel.....you probably won't be getting access to a passport.

Meaning?  With the German national ID card, you can still travel around the EU....but without the passport.....you won't ever be able to leave the EU area.  

2.  Curious polling by FORSA (one of the top polling organizations in Germany).  They went around on this past Sunday....in Berlin, and asked about feelings of the SPD-coalition.

One out of every two they interviewed....were harsh/negative.  Not a good sign.

3.  For those who might remember the 'old' German Commerzbank (from 2008/2009)....they were on border of failure, and were saved at the last minute by the German federal government.

As 2023 ended...shocker....2-billion Euro profit and dividends to be sent out shortly.

4.  Just an unusual story out of Focus.

Down around Lake Constance (far south of Germany)....some German state property guy was given a task....go find a hotel property to house refugees.  This was 2016.

So he finds this older hotel, and writes up a 9-year lease for property.

As the refugees moved in....they said....'there's stuff wrong with the building.'  The state ends up calling in a guy to assess the problems.  I should note here....Focus says he charged the state 40,000 for this assessment.  I'd skeptical they would be this stupid, but that's the story.

When the guy finishes this....the fix for the building is figured to be 532,000 Euro.  Yeah, way more than they can spend.

So no one moves in.  The state continues to pay monthly lease money.....with no residents. Wondering the monthly amount?  Roughly 6,000 Euro a month.

It takes 5 years to finally break the lease.  

There are probably hundreds of stories like this....where people with expertise in the business of solving issues like this....took on work without considerations.

5.  Some kind of weird 'war' has started up in Germany on Tesla cars, and far-left activists.  They hate the car, the public chargers, and Elon.  No idea where this started up....probably a group of intellectual leftists with little to pick on.

6.  If you know the cosmetics shop....'The Body Shop', in Germany....word came yesterday....bankrupt.

7.  New counseling center trend in Germany starting up....theme?  To help Germans who went out on a date or two.....then got dumped without any reason given.  The folks (men and women) have some need of physiological 'healing.  

Not sure where this goes.  In the late 1970s....you would have taken the bad date  ending with three or four shots of whiskey, and some kind words from the GI's in the TV room of the barracks.  Not sure what the modern way of healing would be.

8.  Odd event...Thursday AM....from what the police say....train was between Ulm and Donaueschingen.  Regional express train.

Drunk German onboard....gets rowdy...is approached by the ticket audit guy.....'things go south' as we say in the US.

Guy threatens the ticket guy with a knife A drunk passenger on a regional express between Ulm and Donaueschingen threatened to stab a train attendant with a knife and shoot police officers with a pistol.  I should note here....neither the knife or the pistol has ever been seen.

State police get called, and they enter the train....arresting the guy.  

No injuries.  Charges?  The judge will do a mental stay on the guy (my humble guess), and if he passes it....making the threat will likely get him a year in prison (if he'd had a knife....it'd go to several years).  

9.  I essayed about that German rape case in Görlitzer Park in Berlin last week (the court case underway), with three gentlemen (drug sales folks) accused of raping a woman. Well....the gal wouldn't show up....so the judge said enough....ending the case.

10.  Not that I'd complain about it.....NOT a single snow flake has fallen since 1 December 2023.  Blast of snow and arctic conditions for whole month of November....then the mildest winter I've seen in thirty-odd years of German time.  Geese pass daily over....heading north.  I was at a garden shop yesterday....tons of people buying plants for spring planting.....something they'd traditionally do in late March.  Way ahead of schedule.

11. If you wanted maximum political drama....it came last night (Thursday) via ZDF's public forum show....'Maybritt Illner'.  Yeah, it was a bit late and probably few viewers.

Illner had Beatrix von Storch (AfD Party), Sahra Wagenknecht (BWS Party), and Jens Spahn (CDU).

For those who aren't aware....Spahn is the master debate 'king' in Germany and hardly anyone tops him.  A good portion of the evening was spent with him carving up both the AfD and BWS themes.

At some point, he offered up the quote aimed at both parties: “What you have in common is that you want to sell us to Putin!”

At another point, he offers up the opinion that BWS is merely the AfD Party-plus social issues.  

12.  The EU did a special report on economic conditions for the future, and potential for 'growth'.  German, of all the members of the EU.....is listed last.

Bad sign for the SPD-coalition?  Yeah, and if they reacted....most all of their talked-about plans and promises of the past three years....would just disappear.  

15 Feb 2024: Seven German News Stories

 1.  The BSW Party went and asked the German federal gov't for numbers....over retirement pensions.  

So....around a third of what you'd consider full-time workers in Germany....are expected to receive a monthly pension of 1,100 Euro or less....having given 40 years of effort.

If you asked most Germans....they'd say the bare minimum these days for retirement is 1,400 Euro a month.

Yeah, this probably will be a major talking point in the 2025 federal election.  Where to find money to prop up the low pensions?  Unknown.  

2.  It is a odd number which came up in some radio talk show here in Germany....concerning migration statistics.  Data?  From the Federal Statistical Office. 

So for 2022....German population grew by 1.5 million.  But when you tell the whole story.....there were 2.7 million folks who arrived.  Meanwhile, in the same talk....1.2 million folks left.

So the question came up......why did these folks leave?  Answer is simply not there.

Oddly enough, out of the 1.2 million....around 270,000 were actually Germans.

Then this other funny number falls into play....two-thirds of people who left....were in some way....EU-citizens (meaning German or any of the other EU states).

A big hole on why?  I'd suggest that it's opened up a whole discussion...where zero facts are obvious.  

3.   For the first time since the Kohl era (over 30 years)....Germany appears to have spent a minimum of 2-percent of it's GDP....on defense to NATO.

NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg spoke this on Monday evening. 

Current year spending?  Will amount to 73.41 billion dollars. 

Whether it'll continue in 2025?  Unknown.

A lot of this due to the Ukraine-Russia?  Absolutely.  But it will lessen the talk of Trump....at least for 2024.  

Now, if you asked me...of the 73-billion spent....did they get bang-for-the-buck?  That might not be answerable. 

4.  For those who didn't grasp this or know it....for years, Germany has had a rule that said IF you had a doctorate degree....you could have 'Dr' on your national ID card or your passport.

So the topic has come up for political discussion.  Chief reason?  Well....at border points outside of Germany....they (not the Germans) started to ask if 'Dr' was part of your actual name, and if this were false IDs.  Silly, I admit, but no one is hiring the best and brightest for border-check-points.

So the Bundestag is going to discuss still allowing you (if you have such a degree) to put it on the ID/passport....but on the rear of the card, or second page of the passport.

Why the necessity of noting this gal or guy has a doctorate degree?  I suspect its something left over from the 1800s.  The fact that it might only be a doctorate in French literature or agriculture?  Well....it's best not to bring up values of degrees.

5.  Back around 5 years ago....there was talk of a bicycle parking 'house' being built in Hamburg at a major U-Bahn station on Kellinghusenstrasse.  The idea took off and there were supposed to be an average of 1,000 bicycles parked there, once the job was done.

So the bicycle parking garage on Kellinghusenstrasse was finished in 2021....at a cost of 3-million Euro.  Yeah, it was a heck of a lot....for just a building that would be for bikes.

Recently, someone took a walk around in the middle of a work-day....noting that of the 1,000 possible parking spots....only 15 were parked.

Then they noted...outside of the bike-house....a couple dozen bikes were 'littered' in the area.  The 3-million?  More or less.....totally wasted.

I know....I can probably show you forty of these bike park 'houses' in the Netherlands....all fully in use and worth the investment.  The one here in the Mainz train station....fully in use.  They simply guessed wrong on use for this idea.

6.  Russia will go back to a law on the books...if you suggest any negativity about the war as a Russian....the state can confiscate your property.  In an election, year....it will quiet down thing in a hurry.

7.  Regionally, via HR (my Hessen TV network), they got around to an unusual topic...corrupt Covid test centers.

What they say...in the range of a minimum....there's at 49-million Euro which was 'over-charged' on the tests while they ran.

At some  end-point?  No....that's the other shocker....they keep turning over more records.

In the past week, cops went to raid some guy who'd run an operation for Covid-testing, and found around 350,000 Euro within his residence.

At some point...maybe in the spring of 2021....I would imagine at least forty Covid-test centers existed in the Wiesbaden city-region. Maybe there was oversight and inspections going on....but you just didn't have the manpower to really engage upon this.  

At another point...in 2021...I noticed some news crew was interviewing a guy's lounge (topless dancing)....which was shutdown because of the virus, and the crew had flipped the lounge over into being a testing center.  I was shaking my head....thinking something is likely to be corrupted here.

Do I Believe If Trump Wins....The US Will Exit NATO?

 I suspect that what will happen in this scenario is that the US will ease into a different mindset....closing most US remaining bases....not just in Germany and Italy, but including Turkey, the Netherlands and so on.  

There probably will be some agreement to still exist  in NATO, and play out one or two major exercises a year....but this in-Europe deployment business will finally conclude.

To be honest, back in the 1990s there should have been some decisions made, but the Balkan crisis period prevented this type of process from occurring.

Russia still a threat?  I'd offer the observation that most of their hardware built from the 1990s on....has been either destroyed or lost.  They continue the marginal war with mostly hardware from the depot....from the 1980s and even the 1970s. If you were to gauge replacements?  You'd be talking about a massive amount of money (that they really don't have) and a minimum of twenty years.  

Oh, I agree the nuke threat still exists....but beyond that, the Russians have gambled away impressing people with a potential hardware threat (and lost).

All of this triggering some odd phobia-like process....where people want to believe in WW III potential?  That's the odd factor being played out.  

14 Feb 2024: Dozen German News Stories

 1.  My wife and I were watching late news off ZDF (Channel 2, public TV) last night, and this item came up over the PETA people (always out to protect animals)....wanting to ban German children's carousels.  Reason?  The seats give the impression of animals.  It was ok, if the seats were motorcycle-like or police-car-like.

I paused here and asked my wife (German in nature) if this was a serious problem....she said she was more worried about our toaster (now 12 years in use) crapping out.  

Did ZDF really need to tell this PETA story?  No....but it's a sign that the news cycle is getting pretty sparse in Germany.

2.  We are about six weeks from cannabis legalization in Germany.  Apparently, the judges and prosecutor folks are getting hyped-up (negative) over this issue.  

Lot of this....fear-mongering.  End of civilization or downturn of society....chatter.  

3.  This court case over rape in Berlin's Görlitzer Park is about to fall apart.

 For those unfamiliar with the park....it's a city park known mostly for drug sales (not for walking your dog or laying on the grass to chill out).  At some point last year....a Georgia gal (from the country of Georgia) came with her husband to the park to buy cocaine. She scored....got active with the husband sexually in the park, and a couple of drug sales guys got involved (that's how the rape occurred).

Cops got called, and this case developed.

This week....the gal has declined to appear in court (as the witness).  Without her? The case crumbles.

4.  Oddly, there's chatter in Europe of developing their own nuclear weapons.  Shocker.

So what they evolves into....they are worried now that Trump will win the November election, and that they can't depend on the US for 'defense' against Russia.

So this SPD Party 'boss' in the EU....(Barley)....wants the EU to open up a discussion to make their own nukes or have some interaction agreement with France/UK (they have nukes).  

After all that negativity hype in the 1960s/1970....particularly the Green Party and SPD Party....you end up people enthusiastic about building their own nukes?  

Even if they came to some mutual agreement in the EU (which I doubt)....you'd be talking about billions of Euro to invest into the technology and at least ten years to build your own nuke....unless you bought nukes off North Korea (or some crazy Middle Eastern country).  

5.  INSA, the German polling folks....went and did a EU election survey (it's coming up in about 100 days).  By their survey....if you went to view last EU election (5 years ago)....the Green Party is going be seriously hurt, and the AfD Party will  pick up a number of votes.

6.  Most Germans agree....travel packages (tours)....upward price trend (more than 10-percent) for 2024.  However, the tour agencies are talking about a massive number of Germans showing up an making summer travel plans this year.

7.  Just an odd story....the state of Baden-Württemberg (SW) is presently examining 1,380 cases of 'fake' Ukrainians and Burgergeld (welfare money) that was paid to these folks.  Likely to push other states into looking at the list of people they signed up.

How do they mean 'fake'?  It's not that clear.  Appears to be people who showed up....showed a Ukrainian passport, claimed they were going to stay, and at some point....left, while the money kept going into some bank account.  

8.  A gender 'mess' developing?  Well....this started as a comedy or satire effort.  Bayer Leverkusen had a poster up in the stadium by some fan group (large banner) that said there were only TWO genders.  The German Football Association came up and said this was unsportsman-like behavior....handing down a 18k Euro fine to the club itself (not the fans).  

What they avoided saying....where 3-or-more genders is the rule in soccer.  

This has attracted attention, and another came came up (FC Ingolstadt vs. Dynamo Dresden)....a second  banner in the Dresden fan block came up and said there's only one single 'ridiculous DFB' and two genders. 

All of this chatter setting a stage where the DFB folks need to shut up or avoid saying anything?  More or less.

I'm guessing shortly....some rough-characters will be hired by the league bosses to examine banners as they enter a stadium....to prevent any gender discussion by fans.  

All of this because of the season presently....fasching?  Yeah....I'd say soccer fans are just not taking gender-chatter serious. 

9. I sat and watched a ZDF (public TV in Germany, Channel 2) news piece....way too much 'hate' on the internet....large number of Germans disturbed by the hate ('hass').  Almost one in two saying they've experienced 'something'.

I pondered over it.  To be honest, from my German wife....I tend to get blunt, intense, critical comments on an average of sixteen times a week.   It'd be nice if it were via chat or internet or e-mail....but it's mostly face-to-face.  

Not sure if I should include myself into this study group.

10..  The Green Party Agriculture Minister (Özdemir).....put up a draft plan that will probably disturb German farmers to some degree.   It's mostly about more livestock protection.  Cost impact?  They figure in the range of 900-million Euro (more or less).  Some kind of subsidy attached?  Yes....but it means consumers would pay via grocery taxation.....for this subsidy.  

11.  You ever heard of carfentanyl?  It's a newer version of fentanyl, and has started to appear in Munich.   Its a synthetic opioid around 10,000 times stronger than morphine. If you were wondering....it's even 100 times stronger than regular fentanyl.

12.  Nothing to get too excited about.....but a dead 4-meter (13 ft) long tiger python snake was found dead in the Hasenheide city park yesterday. 

This is located around the Berlin area. Cops asking questions but I doubt that this will come of anything.  Based on the decay in the picture I saw....he's been dead for a couple of months.   Probably scared the crap out of whoever found it.  

13 Feb 2024: Five German News Stories

 1.  Curious note, they figured up the estimate for 2024 tax income for Germany....it's to be near 916-billion  Euro collected (all-time record).  Generally speaking, it still won't be enough to cover the 2025 federal/state budget.

2.  I essayed last week about the German company....Miele....making a decision to move the company manufacturing unit to Poland.  Chief reason?  Energy cost was heavily cited (the Poles still use a fair amount of coal energy).

Focus article discussed at length....Miele isn't the only German company looking at Poland as an option.  

This energy discussion is going to consume a fair amount of political time in 2024....as political groups debate how to lessen the energy cost.

3.  I was watching a N-TV 'talk' on German trains running on-time.  The worst area for unpunctual railway operations?  The Rhine-Ruhr area (near 15-percent being behind schedule), and the Rhine-Neckar region pretty near that statistic.  

Best regions for on-time trains?  Berlin and Hamburg.

4.  Rheinmetal is about to build a new factory in the Saxony region....to produce artillery shells.  They expect a ton of business once complete.

5.  I watched N-TV news this AM.....some foundation had done research and reached a conclusion that one in five Germans are saying they are near burnout at their job.  Pretty fair number.  If I asked my wife over her job....she'd probably say it's near four out of five in a state of nearing burnout.  

12 Feb 2024: Six German News Stories

1.  Focus went into a deep discussion over a gang 'war' developing in Stuttgart. Worth a read (here). 

The basic story?  Two gangs in this war....mostly of non-Germans....ages 19 to 26....roughly 550 members between the two.

Police are concerned over where this is going.  As they point out....a lot of this has to deal with macho-behavior and 'honor' within the gangs.

I suspect if you really dug down into Hamburg, Frankfurt or Berlin....you'd find the same trend developing. 

2.  This repeat-election in Berlin from yesterday (2021's screwed-up situation)?  The winner?  Both the SPD and Green Parties appear to have around 22-percent (each), with  the CDU Party coming up next with 17-percent, and the Linke Party following with 11.5-percent.  AfD is resting at 9.4-percent.

How this relates to the 2021 numbers?  Both the CDU and AfD picked up around 1-percent each....while the SPD lost 1-percent (roughly).

The only thing that is interesting is the turn-out.  Back in 2021...57-percent of registered voters came out (not a great situation).  For this election....40.2-percent of registered voters showed up....which is even worse.

3.  Tesla car production (Grünheide) will re-start today....after being down for a couple of weeks because of supply-chain problems.

4.  WELT piece this AM.....Sociologist Aladin El-Mafaalani has studied an odd effect on German society....discovering that Germans are 'disturbed' over political  promises and what they see as "actual effects" when you talk about immigration/migration.  

I don't think  it's  solely a German thing.....worldwide skepticism exists to a great degree....where for years the news media has carried a message, and the public isn't buying the message/brand any longer.

5.   Finland election for President wrapped up.  Center-right guy wins over Green Party....3-point difference.

6.  France's PM is calling for a age-limit for social media....meaning?  Discussion is that if you were between  13 and 15....you could only get access to social media in France if you had the parent's permission.  Below 13?  Zero social media.

How this would work with Tik Tok, FB, or Instagram?  No idea. 

If one parent gave permission and the other said 'no'?  That might make for an interesting event. If the parents said yes to FB/Meta, but no to the rest?  

Clean 'Text' While Viewing A Movie?

 Last night, my wife dug out this DVD....Aviator II....for us to watch.

First, I'm not much of a fan of Aviator and the saga....this was mostly necessary because of crappy offerings from both German public TV and commercial TV.  I think my back-up plan was CSI and some Vienna opera (I can stand about 4 hours a year).  

So to 'boot' it on the DVD player....I had to chose the language.  Four choices.  German was second, and I don't mind picking it.  

But at the top...was English.  

Just under....there was a 'warning' that under this language choice....it was 'cleaned-up' English....meaning no swear words or derogatory stuff.

I paused there.

My wife (German in nature) asked if the warning was necessary or that rough language bothered English-speakers.  I said 'f**k no', but suggested that some Brits/Americans might be Woke-enough.....that some rough language by AI-characters or Aviator cartoon characters....that it'd make them react in some funny way.

So I watched the crappy Aviator II movie in German....with all the rough-talk included.  To be honest....I didn't notice much on bad words, but that might be because of the German wife using swear words daily.

As for the movie?  There's not much I can say....the Aviator folks beat the idiot Earthlings, and a bunch of AI fish and humans died in a merciful way (without much blood and gore).  

In A German Mindset, Is There Any Difference Between A SUV And A Station Wagon?

 The Audi A4 RS station wagon is 4.78 meters long.

The Audi Q5 SUV is 4.66 meters long.

The Mercedes GLA SUV is 4.10 meters long.

The Mercedes C-Class station wagon is 4.75 meters long.

So, there is a discussion in urbanized areas of Germany (most notably, big cities like Hamburg or Dusseldorf)....that they seek to punish SUV owners by increasing parking fees or limiting access.

After you sit for a while and analyze this discussion....you come to realize that station wagons (for virtually all models like BMW, Audi, Mercedes, Ford, VW)....are longer than SUVs.  

Do Germans grasp this?  I personally doubt it.

It is this odd public frustration building up....the anti-SUV agenda....without much basis for reality.

I've never owned a SUV.  Maybe on four occasions (particularly those trips in New Zealand and Iceland)....I went to rent the medium to large body SUVs.  All I can really say....you have more of a view because of the height of the vehicle.  Tougher to drive?  No...but here....I have those three to four years of dump truck use....to balance my view upon.

The news media helping to convey this agenda?  That's the comical side of this.  You could easily have a segment where you take a tape measure and ask a German to measure both a SUV and a station wagon....then to realize this is a stupid argument to engage upon.  Instead, they do nothing but report the agenda underway.

In a dozen years, I could easily see a new German agenda arriving....to suggest that no vehicle be more than 1.75 meters wide (the size of a VW Polo....a fairly small narrow vehicle)....saying that it's a terrible waste of a 2-meters wide vehicle to exist. 

It is just a funny argument to waste time upon.

Why Germans Have Long-Winded Words (With 20 to 30 Letters)

 Well....basically, it's been always understood that you can 'band' nouns together.

So I'll give you an example.

das Fingerspitzengefühl.  

Meaning?  The fingertip feeling.  In reality, this someone referring something in the sense of a instinct.  So there are several nouns banded into this 19-letter word.

Freundschaftsbeziehungen is another example.  It would mean you and your 'special' buddy.....having a 'friendship relationship'.

Even in modern times....long German words get invented.

For 2023 as an example....Kussskandal (not that long in lentgth) was invented....which basically means 'kissing scandal'.  This goes to a soccer ceremony back in October 2023....when the Croatian Foreign Minister tried to kiss the German Foreign Minister (Baerbock, Green Party, female) on the lips.  You can hunt around....various videos do exist....as Baerbock attempted to dodge the lip-to-lip kiss.  For about a week....this was a 'hot' topic in Germany, and Kussskandal was invented.

Teilzeitgesellschaft came out in 2023 as a newly invented word....banded together.  Meaning?  Part-time society....which was to be used to describe the idea of a 4-day work-week, and how you'd have this extra time (3 days) to develop more hobbies. 

11 Feb 2024: Five German News Stories

 1.  Big long Focus article yesterday....5,000 small German shops are on the verge of giving up...commerce is crap.

Part of this blame?  Inner-city shopping since Covid has drifted down. 

I would readily agree on Wiesbaden being this way....seems like less people in the shopping district.

2.  Focus piece: 49-percent of Germans have marginal to zero 'trust' in daily newspapers in Germany now.  

If you asked me....simply a trend (same in the US), and people are more skeptical today than 30 years ago.

3.  New BSW Party (Wagenknecht leading them)....says that they are willing to talk to the CDU Party (right-of-center) in forming state governments after the fall elections (3 of them, all in the eastern part of Germany).  

If you read the platform....about 75-percent of what they promise is left-of-center stuff, with a couple of centralist positions.   How the CDU could reach some agreement and sell it to the voters?  Unknown.

4.  Piece written for WELT yesterday by Ibrahim Naber....saying that if Ukraine collapses....there would  be a massive exodus (into the millions) out of Ukraine, and into Germany.  His selling point in the article?  Lack of US funds....makes this scenario now possible, and scaring the crap out of German politicians.  

Population as of the summer of 2023? Placed at 36.7-million (I consider the source....the UN....to be moderately accurate. 

Decent scenario?  Part of me would assume that half of the Ukrainian population would be in serious fear, and leave....with half of them bound for Germany.  So the real question....if you take this scenario serious....could Germany absorb 9-million more folks?

I give the Germans mostly positive grades for handling around 250,000 to 300,000 migrants a year.  If you pressed the right buttons and put the German military reserve in charge of the chaos....yeah, they could probably handle 1-to-1.5 million with some effort.  Beyond that?  Nearly impossible.

So.....is this all a reasonable scenario to consider?  Unknown.

I do think over the remaining months of 2024....this topic will come up a good bit.

But this one odd aspect stands out.....lets say that the 9-million come, with the nearly 1-million already here (mostly kids and women).  Lets say they went immediately into integration mode, and with the present rules for citizenship....within 3 years...were German voters (figure 7-million of age).  As a voting block, they could drill down and control 10-to-12 percent of German politics. 

How does this dynamic work?  

5.  Germany is one of the lowest home-ownership countries in the EU....with only 46.7-percent (2022 numbers).

The only country with a worse record?  Switzerland.

Spain at the top with over three-quarters of society owning their home/condo?  Yes.

Chief reasons (at least what Germans themselves say)?  Well.....banks want a real down-payment (minimum of 25-percent usually).  On your taxes, they don't deduct the mortgage payments, as you might expect in the US.

Five Things I Got Out Of The Carlson/Putin Interview

Note: I had to reflect for a full day over what I viewed. 

First, Putin rambled on for 127 minutes, with not much of value except 25-odd minutes of Russian history.  If you didn't know much on Russian history....it might have been of some marginal value.  If you were to dwell on Russian history....I'd spend the time on Catherine the Great, or Peter the Great...but you assume about a quarter of their dramatics are either sexual in nature or pretty provocative stuff.

Second, nothing much covered over dead Wagner guy (Prigozhin).  Might have been interesting to ask but it failed to occur.  Might have been nice to have Putin drop a tear or two about his departed 'friend' and conversations they shared.

Third, by the end....you came to realize that it was a rare interview where nothing seemed scripted or made up with puff-questions.  I'm not saying Putin is bright, but against the backdrop of so many politicians existing in Europe or North America....or crappy CNN interviews....it felt like an authentic interview.

Fourth, by the end (127 minutes)....if you were assessing me or if I had bought all the Putin BS....the answer is that I'm more or less where I was....before the interview.  My level of skepticism preventing me from buying into this?  Yeah.

I see a lot of poor decisions made by Putin and his military staff....assuming they had a first-class military (they don't), the Nazi-thing still bothering them almost eighty years later, and the economic landscape so screwed-up that literally no Russian believes anything they hear.

Fifth and final, Putin believes his BS and all the layers around it.  After years and years of being enclosed....Putin has one single version of reality, and it does not matter how anyone (from Scholz of Germany, or CNN, or Biden, or Trump) sees reality.  

Putin speaks his reality to the Russian public, and I would imagine around 30-percent reflect that same reality.  The rest just shake their head....get on with work, and sip vodka to get by the daily frustrations. 

For the fired-up anti-Putin folks disturbed over the interview....ask yourself....was there anything that transformed people  one way or another?  It's like bringing up the 14 seasons of the TV show 'Dallas' and asking people is there anything from the 300 various hours that transformed you?  The Putin-Carlson two-hour show was like that.  

NOTE: That moment when Putin suggested that Carlson was CIA....I got the impression that Carlson tried not to act surprised or smile.  Is Carlson CIA?  They probably have 20,000 people on some contract for some purpose....so yeah, it might be true.

How Hyped-Up Is Germany Over The Super Bowl?

 Well....2024 is just an odd year.  And Super Bowl 'mania' has reached an epic level.

Throughout the 1980s/1990s....other than around Army/Air Force bases in Germany....there just wasn't much interest. 

Since 2010?  It's just odd....each year....you can probably say another quarter-million German folks have stepped up and gotten 'fired-up'.

Since the Covid-era?  Things have intensified....with the commercial networks actually playing Sunday night games (from early afternoon schedules).  

If you walk into a grocery....there's various party treats being put up for sell. 

If you asked German guys to name their name....they actually have a preference (mostly for the Chiefs, 49ers).

Is this crossing over to college (NCAA) games?  Not yet, but I expect within a year....Saturday coverage will also be offered on RTL.

The one single NFL game to be played in the fall of 2024 in Germany?  Carolina Panthers against a mystery team....in Munich.  Oddly, they are avoiding chatter over who the second team will be.

All of this leading to NFL expansion?  Well....some chatter has started up that 3 teams in Europe will get the nod by the end of 2025....London, Frankfurt and Munich.  The BS mostly goes that by 2027...the teams would exist.  

If you'd said back in the 1980s that this much interest would exist, and that actual teams in Germany would exist....people would have laughed.  But....here we are.

10 Feb 2024: Eleven German News Stories

 1.  Chatter in Berlin....up-tick on parking 'card' expected....going up to 60 Euro a year for a card that you'd have to put in some display....even in a free parking area.  This is five times the current yearly parking fee.

2.  Over in Berlin, due to complaints....a meeting was held in the Doberlug-Kirchhain neighborhood over the company that is running local refugee accommodations.

Allegations?  Well...the accusations included racism, lack of privacy, and some element of unequal treatment.

I should point out....this was not the locals complaining....but the actual occupants of the refugee 'center'..

3.  I sat and watched N-TV news yesterday.  A segment came on....hyping up environmental polling, and basically said...that from the group who are pro-environment....about 40-percent of these Germans also fear that poverty and loss of jobs/industry will come with the actions Germany takes.

This belief....whether real or fake....ought to concern the bulk of German voters.  Even if you suggest that a third of the German population is extremely pro-action on the environment.....then you are saying that half of that 'third' aren't expecting to live a really productive life for what they have remaining.

If you said a fair amount of German industry will leave the country....to find some a better landscape, it'd probably scare some Germans over lifestyle options.

4.  N-TV piece.....this odd discovery made in German kid's urine?

What the German Federal Environment Agecy says.....a pollutant was discovered in urine samples of kids.

Where's it come from?

Well....the current chatter  is sunscreen.  They can't explain how this would work, but you would assume some absorption by the skin, and the body in some ways transfers this to the kidney (but only in kids).

Not in adults?  That's another part of the story.....so far....only kids.  

5.  Syphilis rise up in Germany?  Yes.

Not a lot of indicators how or why....just that the numbers are seen in a upward trend.

6. German inflation in the new year (2024)....lowest since mid-2021?  Yeah, the slow-down has finally started to occur.  

7.  Austrian police (mid-day Friday) found the missing deputy editor-in-chief of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” gal (accused of plagiarism a week ago).....near a bridge.

Based on the description....she was severely hypothermic but alive.

8.  Odd flight drama.  Lufthansa flight.....Thailand to Germany....German male passenger (63) has some health issue, and by the end....coughing up blood via his nose/mouth. The term 'liters' is used but I doubt that they meant such a loss of blood.  The guy died by the time they landed.  

It just sounded like one of these weird African diseases that kills you within hours, but this was coming out of Thailand.  

9.  WELT wrote a significant piece this AM....tax burden on German companies is enormous, and killing competition.  Even  German Green Party members are quietly admitting that something about taxation has to change.

10.  Some kind of new protest group starting up....'Fridays for Israel'.  Protesting against anti-Semitism.  Mostly a teen/young adult effort here in Germany.

11. BASF (the major German company) is selling off it's projects in China (two major industry operations).

9 Feb 2024: Seven German News Stories

 1.  A few days ago, I essayed over the newest plagiarism episode unfolding....the vice-chief editor of the “Süddeutsche Zeitung” (Alexandra Föderl-Schmid).

Well....since yesterday, she's been missing, and there's a 'final' letter indicating that she might be suicidal.

At least 100 folks are involved in the search....in a wooded region of Bavaria.  

2.  The Finance Minister showed up at Leipzig University for a 'talk'.  The 'Last Generation' protest folks showed up at the 'talk' as well.  This may be their new dynamic....instead of gluing themselves to pavement.

3.  Curious scandal brewing with the Job-Center folks in Germany.  They'd approved some Ukrainian family (several members) for financial help, and a few weeks into this....the family quietly went back to the Ukraine.  The money?  It kept flowing into a German bank account.  They figure up toward 40,000 Euro.  Whether the Germans get the money back or not?  Unknown.

4.  Wiesbaden had a ceremony....welcoming 80 new 'extra' police out of the school.  This is 80 new billets....designed for western Hessen (the state)....from Wiesbaden to Limburg.   Another effort to lessen crime.

5.  WELT piece this AM....suggesting a NY bank deeply involved in commercial real estate....is about to collapse, and there's some connection to German banks.  So the word 'crisis' is uttered a good bit.  

Note, you dig into US banks....three different avenues of failure going on....commercial real estate (especially on the west coast), private home real estate, and cars at a record rate being repossessed.  

6.  Health Minister (Lauterbach) appeared live last night on a public forum show, and got into chatter about cannabis.  It was more or less a talk on the 'evils' of cannabis....while admitting that the SPD-coalition is about to approve public sale of cannabis (2 weeks away).  Rather odd forum.....most of the guests weren't as dramatic or negative on cannabis use or the 'evils'.

Anyone's  guess how the legalization will go.  Locally in Wiesbaden (295k population), I'd suspect around 8-percent are weekly consumers of weed.  My best guess is that six shops end up licensed to operate. 

7.  Odd event in Switzerland last night....western side of the country.....train is taken over by one guy (armed with a ax).  Fourteen passengers and the train driver taken hostage.  Several hours spent with the police talking to the guy.  Then police rushed the guy...shooting him (mid-30s Iranian guy on asylum bid).  No one injured except for the Iranian.  

Oddly, police had issues trying to communicate with him (none of them spoke the native language, and this Iranian didn't speak German, English or French). In the end....they did chat back  and forth using WhatsApp and its translation capability (probably through Google). 

What the police say at the end.....Iranian never got into motive other than wanting asylum.  Rushing the guy....they shot him dead as he raised his ax.   

How Does Freedom of Assembly Work in Germany?

 Well....under Article 8 of the Basic Law (Constitution)....there are two rights or conditions.

First....ALL Germans have the right to assemble, but it notes in this language....it has to be done in a peaceful way, without any threatening 'weapons'.  In this meaning...it also conveys that this is a indoor assembly.....where you don't need to tell the authorities or have the permission of the authorities.

Second, the next sentence gets to outdoor assemblies, where you do need permission, or you could be told local laws would prevail over your demonstration or assembly.

An example of this?  You want to meet on some city park at noon with 1,000 folks (in a peaceful stance).  The police will demand you apply for a permit and state the number of participants.  If the park can handle 1,000 folks....no problem.  If you were coming with 6,000 people and the park is over-taxed....the assembly will be denied.

If you brought up a protest situation and asked Germans if they've ever been to one.....the odds are...if they live in a town of 3,000 or less....they've never been to a protest in their life.  If they've lived in Mainz or Frankfurt for their entire life....the vast majority will admit to several attendances. Some will tell you of forty-odd protest events that they've been to....being proud of the attendance 'rate'.

8 Feb 2024: Thirteen German News Stories

 1.  Sweden note:  investigation into the Nord Stream episode....the Swedish public prosecutor's office says they can't ID any particular suspects.  Case closed.  

2.  This Sunday (the 11th) will be the repeat election in Berlin, for the crapped-up 2021 federal election.  Anyone's guess how many people will show up.  Epic saga.....how they screwed up and spent two years arguing to just 'let-it-go'.  

3.  450 flights cancelled Wed in Frankfurt over strike action.

4. This idea in Hessen of changing the no-Sunday-shopping law with zero-manned shops....is dragging out in the state assembly.  Problem centers on Tegut-grocery operations where a mini-store is operating, without any clerks or employees (you swipe your credit card to enter).  Comical side of this....both the FDP and Greens are fired-up to dump the Sunday law....while the CDU and SPD (controlling the coalition) wants a long lengthy discussion.  

Selling point by the grocery folks (Tegut) is that no deliveries occur on Sunday, and no personnel are required in the shop for the entire day.....yeah, just customer entry.  

5.  "Intensiv-Straftäter"?  It's an interesting German term and I had to look it up.

Basically, it'd translate to mean a 'intensive-offender' or a guy/gal who repeats crimes.

It came up when looking at a story out of Regensburg (town in Bavaria, about an hour north of Munich, 152k population).

So the town has a group of repeat criminals who mostly hang out at the train station.  Thirty-four of them.....30 of which are Tunisian, The other four?  One each from Czech, Iraq, Syria and Algeria.

What the city says (at least BILD reports it this way)....none of the 34 can be deported yet....because of a lack of documentation.  The way they say this....it appears their citizenship can't be confirmed, so you can't proceed yet on deportation. 

Petty crimes?  Yeah....that would be the angle of the story.  

All of this requiring more police around the train station?  Well....yeah. 

I would imagine in the 1970s/1980s....some local city judge would have just said you need to leave the city limits.  Then the group would move hopped on some train and gone to Munich or Frankfurt and been a burden on their city.

It is one of those odd stories that you notice from the 1980s.  You could have walked around the Mainz, Wiesbaden or Darmstadt train stations in that era, and maybe seen one single two-cop patrol in peak operating hours, or Saturday evening.   Today, they all have a police 'office' in each station, and there's always patrol walking around.  In Frankfurt?  There's probably two or three patrols constantly roaming around the station and underground.

6.  Focus went a step further in Regensburg....asking people their opinion of the local scene.

What the locals say....there's always been a drug scene going on there (mostly around the train station), but it's branched out to the downtown area.  With it....comes minor crime as people need ways to pay for their drugs.

I'll just say that in most cities of Germany...if you stood around either the train stations or central town bus stations....there's drug trafficking going on. I can say that for Wiesbaden and Frankfurt....you just need to sit on a park bench and make observations.

7.  WELT piece: January 2024.....26,000 asylum applications....more than in December.

8.  Serious WELT piece from yesterday....written by Ulf Poschardt....discussing the idea that the FDP Party needs to exit the coalition ASAP (triggering a new election) in order to save itself from massive collapse in the fall of 2025.

Odds of this happening?  Well.....the SPD and Greens are at the weakest point in the past decade.  If you held an election....the combined percentage of the two would likely not exceed 32-percent.  

The CDU-CSU Party would likely win under this scenario, with the AfD locked into 2nd place but blocked from participating in the new coalition.  I'm not saying this is a big win....you might even see both the Linke Party and FDP Party not meeting the 5-percent rule (thus getting no seats).  

Present date for the federal election?  September 2025.  

Note, even with the CDU anticipated win....they have to partner with a minimum of 1 party....maybe 2.  Don't go anticipating a strong CDU government.  

9.  A new tax is being discussed....on German-produced meat....which would create a subsidy to German farmers....to make their operation more animal-friendly.  You'd have to show some plan....to get your chunk of the subsidy.  This lessening your meat consumption?  I doubt it....course, if this were 1 Euro per kilo....that would upset folks.

10.  EU talking on next regulation.  If you were banned in one country of the EU (loss of driving license)....they want all members of the EU to exclude you.  This being acceptable?  Well....lot of chatter that various EU members are asking questions.

This being a 'problem'?  I have no idea.  No one can really cite Germans (or French or Italians) having multiple licenses.  I would imagine some folks have this, but you can't prove any serious data.

The only way I could see this working....is one single EU license, period.

11.  German Justice Minister is working on an odd project.  He wants to create a category of a relationship.....where it's NOT marriage, but on paper....you would be taking responsibility of your 'partner'. 

Some of this goes toward gay/lesbian relationships, but since gay/lesbian marriages are legal in Germany.....it doesn't really lay out the path on how this would work.

I will admit....you find a lot of German couples who've been together 10 to 20 years, and they have zero interest in getting married.  

I would imagine some new term (short of marriage) will have to be invented.

12.  “As soon as one country leaves, the other countries have easier termination conditions."   Quote from Thuringia's AfD Party boss (Höcke).  Concerns moving public TV (ARD/ZDF) into a forced 'change'.

Curious that they would pick this as a battle. I suspect if you asked working-class Germans....at least one-third think the current TV/Media tax is extremely high,  and they want some type of 'cut'.  In the Thuringia state?  It might go as high as 50-percent of people wanting a cut on the tax.

On public TV fighting this type of situation?  Oh, you'd find them using every avenue possible to keep the current package intact.  

13.  Miele, the German company who makes freezers, washers, dryers, etc?  They announced yesterday that they will move production out of Germany....to Poland....to be competitive.  That will be discussed a good bit.

EU Strategy To Set Sanctions Upon Tucker Carlson

 It is a curious tactic.....there's a discussion underway in the EU that it was a 'evil/bad' thing for Russia's Putin to be interviewed by Tucker Carlson (American journalist).  So they'd like to condemn Carlson, and set into motion some 'forbidden-to-enter' the EU.

I sat and paused over the chatter.

First, there is no listing of world leaders which guides EU or non-EU journalists on who to interview, or who is considered 'Hitler-like' (thus forbidden).  

Even if you asked the EU to develop such a listing....with their past history, it'd take three years to get the first name on the list approved by the membership. 

Second, for two years....Ukraine's Zelenskyy has wandered around Europe and given probably 300 interviews to just German journalists.  Just guessing, but for Italian or French, or Dutch journalists....it's probably in the 200 to 300 range each.

It's reached a level in Germany where probably a quarter of the public is not pro-Ukraine or pro-Zelenskyy....wanting no further views of Zelenskyy.  I'm not saying this group is pro-Russia or pro-Putin (even though German public TV hints of that)....it's just people no longer see the war in the same light as they did in the first 30 days.

Is watching a 90-minute interview of Putin dangerous?  Well....most Germans (maybe Dutch and Italians as well) are generally skeptical of any BS given to them....even by their own journalists, politicians, religious leaders, or scientists. If you put a BS-button on your remote and you could record a BS-level on some news piece....it'd probably go off at least once or twice during the nightly news.

Do I see this sanctions chatter as having value?  Yes...for the next month...rather than get onto the idea of regulating toilet seats, or setting portion limits on mustard, or setting a standard police siren for all of the EU....they can go and spend countless hours discussing whatever BS that Putin opened up about and the absolute evil nature of that Carlson guy.  

Finally, to this odd factor....the EU election is about 100 days away, and typically.....it's a quiet period, with no real ruckus to set up the dynamics of the votes.  It would be fairly stupid to create this mechanism where people are thinking about their choices and whether they are pro-Putin or anti-Putin, or pro-war or anti-war.  

As I've said....probably a quarter of the German population isn't that happy over events created in the war....the inflation....the cost of energy....or the invented solutions to make up for a loss of natural gas.  Whether Putin speaks or not....folks have a crappy feeling.  

If Carlson is sanctioned or forbidden entry?  Who will be next on the list?  

7 Feb 2024: Seven German News Stories

 1.  Just odd, in the past week, President Biden gave some campaign speech over Europe loving him being back....then he said that he'd met with “Mitterand from Germany.” 

For the record, Mitterand was President of France, but died around 30 years ago (before Obama, Trump, Bush, and Clinton).  He actually left the office in 1995.

Yeah, it was confusing because some Americans probably still think that Georges Pompidou (1969-1974) is still in charge.

2. Similar statements by the Finance Minister and Economics Minister: 

They readily agree....Germany now seen as “no longer competitive”. 

Economics Minister Habeck comment?  "Corporate taxation was no longer internationally competitive”.

Finance Minister comment? "It is inconceivable that this will not lead to political change.”

How they fix this and still make enough revenue for current programs?  Unknown. They are correct.....there is some 'wave' in the making to drive companies beyond the border.

3.  Bavaria (the state) is now aggravated by new plan of Czech....to build four new nuke-power plants.  If you remember the German strategy....nuke-power is evil,  and they've eliminated all of the operational plants in Germany (back in 2023).  

4.  David McAllister (CDU Party) who is the 'boss' of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the EU Parliament, made a speech yesterday over Ukraine support.  But one item came up....in blunt talk....the EU needs a change in industrial strategy.....war supplies needs to be manufactured in the EU, and at a faster pace.

5.  Sixt, Hertz, and SAP have all given notice to Tesla....they are finished on the trend toward E-cars and Tesla.  

6.  Winter conditions (like snow and cold temperatures) have returned to the northern third of Germany.  Whole past month have been odd  pattern....spring-like weather.  

7.  Yesterday....accusations of plagiarism came up here in Germany.  Accused?  The deputy editor-in-chief of the Süddeutsche Zeitung.  From regional news, it appears that the individual is on leave at present while this is sorted out.

Süddeutsche Zeitung, if you remember back a year ago....had gone after a Free Voter Party 'boss'.   It would appear that this might be retribution in some form.  Worst scenario?  Well...the university (University of Salzburg) will review and can take one of three actions: (1) saying the thesis was not bothered by this, (2) they could say several poor citations exist and just leave it like it was, or (3) remove the degree if it was very serious screw-ups.  

I should note.....this was written and accepted in 1996.  

If the degree was voided?  Well....resignation likely occurs.  I'm likely to believe a couple of poor citations are in the mix, and her degree survives.