1. The German Health Ministry came out yesterday and admitted....some of those 2020/2021 Covid masks that they acquired and distributed to the public.....weren't really meeting 'standards'. So yeah, you might have gotten Covid even if you wore the masks they handed out.
Kinda funny. Just a massive amount of incoming pallets of masks, and no one really controlling the system.
2. Talk over the gov't idea of a tax-rebate for foreign workers who enter Germany....to fill critical needs in industry. Would be a 3-year deal. Some people are saying it's unfair for those already here.
3. German knife assault numbers: ZDF (public TV, Channel 2) says: "The Police Crime Statistics (PKS) show 8,951 knife attacks in connection with dangerous and serious bodily harm for 2023, compared to 8,160 cases in 2022. In robbery offenses, the police recorded 4,893 knife offenses (2023), after 4,195 cases in the previous year. This results in a total of 13,844 knife attacks. "
4. ZDF says....from the average German and what they pay out (taxes, social benefits, etc).....out of 1 Euro....47-cents remains as your 'take-home'.
5. The wife and I were out yesterday in the heat....in Wiesbaden. We sat at a cafe and ordered a 1-liter bottle of chilled water.....bill came to 8.60 Euro (1 bottle/2 glasses). Yeah....hefty amount. Would have been 5.50 back in 2019.
6. I noted this story from the Pfalz....a female driver on the B9 roadway near Andernach....ended up hitting a herd of wild boar two nights ago. 14 of them dead.
Road ended up being closed almost an hour as the boars were removed.
When I worked in the Ramstein area....I got up early one day (6 AM)...before sunlight, and about a mile from the house....the city garbage truck was sitting in the middle of the road....had hit a massive-sized boar....losing the good bit of the undercarriage and having a dead boar.
7. Just an odd statement from President Biden (6 June interview and commentary)....that he 'knew' Putin when he was a 'KGB-East Germany boss' in the 1980s.
I can't validate that Biden even came to West Germany in that period, or that he ventured into DDR/East Germany. The odds of the two meeting....accidentally? One in a million.
Then you get stuck....what does 'knew' really mean?
8. Just an odd reminder: Adenauer was 73 when he became Germany's first chancellor. When he retired...he was 87.
9. Oberhausen police were called yesterday....playground situation. 12-year old German girl walking around with a knife. Cops arrive....yeah, there's a German girl with a knife and waving it around. They approach....asking the kid to put it down. She refuses and starts to approach them. Cops fire a round into the air (this is pretty rare in Germany as a tactic). Kid still advanced.....2nd round in the air fire.
At this point....some adult in the area approached from rear and put the kid on the ground. Cops apprehend the girl. Some kind of mental health situation being reviewed.
10. Hessen, my local state, did the impossible....they changed the law to allow UNMANNED grocery 'shops' to open on Sundays.
Tegut is operating a number of TEO operations....what I'd describe as a 10 ft by 50 ft mini-grocery. You scan your charge card at the front, and it allows you to enter and buy from a limited number of items (I'm guessing about 250 items on the shelf).
The rest of the law stays intact.....you can't operate a manned shop on Sundays.
11. Hessen Ministry of Education has 'hinted' that they are checking families leaving via Frankfurt's airport....if the kid is actually on summer vacation.
Well....someone asked the airport police, and they said 'no'.....so the threat of checking is BS.
Each German state has a allocated school vacation period....where you might leave in X-month and get a slightly better deal on cost. By state laws....leaving early (even 24 hours)....would get the family a fine.
Now, if you bring up the topic and ask German parents....they will all say the final two weeks are a total waste....with class tests done by the 12th day prior to the end, and it's pure games and social stuff for the remainder of the days.
Is it worth a 200 Euro fine (if caught)....taking your kid out of school two days early and getting a slight discount of 300 Euro on the cost of the vacation for the family of three? Most would argue, the risk is minor if caught.
12. Cops investigating a counterfeit scheme....came to conclude that yes....there's a new item being counterfeited....master-craftsman certificates.
You basically have a guy who wants a job that pays well, and he applies to a small company that rarely checks out paperwork. He presents some basic knowledge, and gets hired. You end up with this guy doing plumbing work for your house....paying him the hefty master-craftsman rate....when he really knows just enough knowledge to get by.
13. NATO meeting this week. Odd topic came up.....they want each member of NATO to plan on investing 3-percent (the goal for around a dozen years has been 2-percent) of their GDP....on military infrastructure.
A problem for Germany? YEAH. Only by a massive cut in social spending...would you reach this 3-percent goal.
14. Bitcoin crash going on? Well....if you look at values...back on 21 May....it was near $71,000....presently, it's at $57,700. What happened?
Well....the discussion started up in the last couple of days....a German federal police investigation has concluded in Saxony....over a money-laundering operation. Amount seized by the Germans? 50,000 BTC....amounting to $3-billion (at least when they held control and started selling it as a German federal process).
Company involved? Movie2k.to.
So via the police effort....the BTC was dumped onto the market. A wise decision? Well....I might have taken this rather slow....over a year. Recovery for the BTC market? I would imagine in 3 months....it'll reach back to $65,000.
The folks who lost the $3-billion? I'm guessing they are pretty irate at this point.
15. New NATO command setting up in Wiesbaden....Ukraine-Support....to have around 700 personnel assigned from across NATO.
16. Hessen (the state) has settled a mandate....there will be a 'truth-commission' on Covid.
Where this leads onto? Unknown. The fact that the federal apparatus out of Berlin is trending toward a Covid truth-commission as well? Yeah.....going to be a lot of 'truth' going on.
17. Back in the 1980s....the US went to a strategy of attempting to put cruise missiles in Germany. Massive public negative stance on this idea.
Well...this AM...there's a story that a new joint-effort to put US-cruise missiles in Germany, and the SPD-Green-FDP coalition is fully supporting the idea.
This is a temporary measure....going up to some point in 2026. Putin to see this as a threat? It's left to your imagination.
2 comments:
Regarding the unmanned grocery stores, half the time they are manned by remote video feeds. So technically their amazing technology is just people being exploited in other countries.
Also, I can recall that the Airport Police do check when you're travelling if it's with kids that it lines up with holidays. I had a couple of times I needed to show exemptions from the school in the passport control area.
I've watched the video of the unmanned shops. The software monitors you as you enter, and there is some type of video feed (recording) you in the shop. My feeling...these are put mostly in smaller towns/villages where you might have honesty existing. Other thing...juveniles don't usually have bank-cards....up to maybe age 14/15. I don't think they stock booze/beer/wine.
I've yet to go into one of these mini-shops...so I can't say much over what's offered. They claim six days a week...these are restocked.
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