1. ZDF (public TV, Channel 2) weather lady came on Thursday night with an interesting graphic. Month of June....the country of Germany had an average temperature of minus-8 C compared to what would be normal. Spain and eastward through Russia? Plus-8 C.
My village temperature range for 2024 so far? We hit 30 C one single day so far. My AC unit still sits in the basement....yet to be used in this summer.
Weirdest summer (mildest) ever, for my region of Germany.
2. Coalition gov't has agreed in the 2025 budget plan....thus avoiding a collapse in the gov't.
3. BSW Party boss (Wagenknecht)....has come out and said that the Green Party is doing just as much damage to the society...as the AfD Party.
Probably a fair sum of German society would agree with that assessment.
4. Italian island of Stromboli has declared an emergency, as the volcano is fairly active in the past day or two.
It's the isle off the 'tippy-toe' on the western side of Italy.
5. Germany-Spain Euro Cup game last night? Spain won....just on one single play toward the end of over-time. Germany had kicked the ball up to the goal, and kick resulted in touching a Spanish player's hand....which should be a 'foul' and allowing a 11-meter free-kick.
Well...ref decided it was a kick with 'off-sides' conditions, thus allowing no free kick. End of the game....that was all that the German analysts talked about, and coach was in tears over the way that one single play went. Will be talked about for decades.
I should note the game that followed....France-Portugal....came to a over-time condition of 0-0, and did the five kick-offs....France winning because of that. It was a mostly unremarkable game.
I should note...Turkey plays against the Netherlands. Top player for Turkey kicked out of the Euro Cup over a hand-sign (the wolf-sign) episode. Lot of anger brewing over this dismissal.
6. Joe Biden quote from last night: "I am the one who controls NATO."
Lot of Europeans would normally be upset by the wording, but I doubt that they grumble much in public over this. They know President Biden is in election-trouble at present.
7. My assessment over the UK election?
Labor Party (left-of-center) won....but if you look at pure numbers....80-percent of the UK either didn't vote, or they voted for another party. While one might pat them on the back and wish them luck....I'd generally say that new PM Starmer will be lucky to last more than 18 months, before party members 'fire' him.
8. Drama playing out in Berlin, over a curious 'firing'.
So, the story goes this way.....there was a 'letter' signed by some professors of a university in Berlin. It had to do with support for pro-Palestinian protests.
The 'boss' of the state-mechanism Ministry of Education (not the federal 'boss') began to look on whether she could cut funding for them.
Fed 'boss' stood up and said 'no'.....you can't do that, then went to early-retire the state 'boss'.
Well....the state 'boss' has decided to take this into court. Her question? She wants the court system to say 'yes' or 'no'....that she can make public statements as part of her job.
My suspicion? If you dig up the job title listing and the 'powers' assigned to the state 'boss'....yeah, she can take on any professor or group that receives funding....thus cutting funds as a way to control behavior. My prediction is that the court says in the end....she is 'un-retired' and put back into her job, or awarded some sum of money.
4 comments:
I'll bet you a spaghetti Eis that Keir Starmer is a two term Prime Minister at least. No one complained about the lack of turnout in the brexit vote, where 150000 votes changed the course of their country to protect rich oligarchs and take away their freedoms. They haven't had more than 70% turnout in decades, and that's due to the system being a first past the post catastrophe.
The main reason for the low perceived vote share was the strong push for tactical voting to oust the Tories no matter what. Basically they've governed so poorly for 14 years, that merely not being them was a good enough campaign slogan.
I won't argue about the Tory Party being 'stupid' for past five years. Disgruntled folks departed and found 'Reform'.
What I see is a heavy taxation gimmick by Labour to pay for their 'gifts' to the public, and a decline in commerce/tax revenue. Starmer has a limited amount of time to show recovery. This promise of building 1.5-million new homes/apartments? It's hard to see how this occurs. Germans have made similar promises and failed miserably on delivery.
On political change being necessary? Two years after BREXIT, you could see this change being required.
Try 14 years of stupidity. No gimmicks on the part of Labor, they've actually detailed very precisely what their plans are and how they're going to implement them.
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