Five Q-and-A

 1.  For the German 2025 national  election....if Scholz is 'swapped-out' with Pistorous....do the election numbers change?

So to the reality of this funny topic....back in 2021, most everyone agreed that Scholz wasn't really a person to 'sell' a brand, but the CDU Party (Merkel's crowd) did everyone a favor by finding a lesser desirable chancellor candidate.

My humble view....once we get to December 2024....Pistorous will be given a 'nod' and enter the Chancellor election phase.  

The SPD problem then?  They've not impressed anyone for four years.  They need a 'brand' to sell, and the only voters they will attract are Green Party voters.  So what I see is a fair loss for the Green Party (them drifting down to 12-percent) and Pistorous able to get up around 25-to-28 percent for the SPD.  It might be enough to marginally win....if the CDU Party can foul things up a 2nd time.

2.  Is there a punctuality problem with the German railway system?

Look....go back to the 1970s, and trains were always about 70-percent on-time (meaning  within 5 min of the schedule).  From a personal view....even with all the gadgets and management....nothing has improved that much or gotten worse over 50 years. 

If anything....there are fewer operational toilets on the trains, and that's more or less....a mystery why they can't fix them.

3.  Are German guys more 'point-magnets' for losing their driving license?

The fed system says.....with data to back it up....three-quarters of the people who get points via traffic tickets...are men.  Eventually, I suspect that insurance companies will invent a rate that cut car insurance for women in Germany.

4.  All this Caliphate chatter worrying folks?

What you had in Hamburg was a protest situation with about 1,000 to 1,500 protest folks who want a Islamic Caliphate system working in Germany.....meaning the Islam folks have one set of rules/laws, and the non-Islam folks would just keep cruising with normal German rules/laws.

Public TV hyped the protest, but so far.....hasn't been a lot of similar actions in other parts of Germany.

If you did approach the 5.5-million Muslims in Germany (bulk are Turks).....asking about this idea....I suspect  90-percent would just start laughing because they can't take it serious, and they don't want alcohol, cannabis, or stringent lifestyles inflicted upon them.  From the remaining 10-percent, half of them would probably tell you that mixing politics and religion creates a 'Frankenstein-like' mess.

Yet, this drilled up public forum topics for at least a month.

5.  Lot of discounts on Chinese E-cars in Germany?

Well....for several weeks, it's been openly discussed.  Probably more cars sitting on the lots than expected from a year ago.