1. Yesterday, I noticed that some German had collected up gov't data and displayed a chart.....showing more dogs in Germany....than kids age ten and under. The hint? The birth-rate is crap.
See....the one odd thing....you have to register your dogs (for the dog-tax)....so there is a official number which you can't deny.
They may have a point, but this trend has been going on for a decade or two.
2. The VW mess. Last night via public and commercial TV news....there were tons of talk over how VW got to this level of financial woes. Facts?
Well....three plants of the ten currently existing.....will go away. In terms of numbers to be laid off....30,000 for 2025.
Main reason for the problems? Electrical and natural gas costs figure into this....as does the cost of each German employee. Someone made the case that if you made VW cars in Spain....by the time you consider energy costs and manpower numbers.....you'd probably save around 20-percent of what it takes in Germany.
Some truth to this.....the Ukraine-war set up a problem in getting Russian natural gas. In terms of electrical cost....everything has to be 'clean' and 'safe'.....so coal and nuke energy are out.
What was not said last night? Well....my German wife pointed this out.....that BMW, Opel, Ford-Germany and Mercedes are right behind VW....she figures by Christmas....they will announce their cuts, and this will add up to 100,000 people laid off. Political chaos will be the final stage of this event.
I'll just say it....as bad (recession-wise) as 2024 has been.....I'd say 2025 promises to be worse.
Oh, and footnote here....VW employees are talking about a strike action (wanting a pay-raise).
3. Last night via Pro-7.....they ran a special German report entitled "Radical Christians and their grip on power?"
Two hour documentary piece....centered on cult-like Christian group developing and infecting German politics.
4. Talking points on 'Hart Aber Fair' public forum show last night on ARD? Centered primarily the car chaos in Germany, why E-cars must be 'pushed' by the gov't, and toward the end.....they brought on some guest to say that German cities need to model themselves after Dutch cities....with the focus on bicycles.
It will be near impossible to sell Germans on Dutch-style urbanization....because the general feeling that the major German cities are places you'd rather not live....so escaping....to live 20 and 30 km away from the big-towns has been the trend for three decades now.
5. German police admitting an interesting statistic for 2024 (so far).....more Germans shot in this year (now at 17) than in the past 25 years (high numbers go back to 1999).
Reason? Physical confrontations seem to be the trend, and in the majority of cases....after giving a warning...the individual seems to be either too drunk or drugged-up....to comprehend that the police will fire.
Some folks are suggesting that mental illness is at a all-time level (no real data to prove that point).
I would agree....appears to be more homeless people on the streets than what existed in the 1980s/1990s.
6. From Italy.....cleaning lady came to throw out a retiree's mattress. Well....guy came realize what'd been done. He'd been keeping his life savings (amounting to 50,000 euro) in the mattress. Garbage guys involved in the search....taking a couple of hours, but they were able to find the mattress and money.
7. Thuringia (the state) has concluded the coalition gov't talks....CDU, SPD and BSW agreed. BSW in the state dropped a number of things to reach an end-point.
The national level of BSW were irritated by agreement. They wanted the SPD and CDU to give in more.
8. UK Oasis band tickets in a crisis. If you bought via the original ticket-dealer.....your tickets are good. If you bought re-sold tickets.....your tickets are no longer any good.
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