1. The chief of RWE energy (major grid provider in Germany)....spoke up to the idea of bringing back nuke-power in Germany.....saying 'no, it shouldn't be brought back'.
My take? If you attempt to bring it back.....there's going to be a massive number of lawsuits to make a 5-year plan turn into 20 years. The need to have dependable energy, with costs stabilized? Yeah....either you go to coal-power or nuke-power, but either would get environmentalists hyped-up.
The simple fix? Well....go to Poland and let them run the nuke-plant construction/operation for you, and agree to some free 'gift' of 5-billion Euro to be the guilty party in this tricky situation.
2. WELT had an interesting commentary this AM....about the 'fairy-tale' atmosphere in Germany over elections....where voters think the rich get richer, and the poorer get poorer.
To be honest, this 'idea' has been around for over a hundred years in Germany's political landscape (nothing new).
The continual trend with tax reform....never seems to work.
3. There appears to be a heck of a lot of 'truth-commission' effort going on with the Magdeburg terrorist act at the Christmas market.
No one really wants to admit that this Saudi guy was probably 'nuts' from day one of applying for asylum.....that he was never qualified to be a mental-health professional....that he was always faking people out that he was anti-Islam....and that the local 'bosses' of security at the Magdeburg Christmas market ran a crappy security plan.
The sad thing.....you have to sit there as a local....having all this explained to you....as if you were a 9-year-old kid, and these are all accidental problems.
4. I was reading a WELT piece, and the statistic came up.....Germans drink 37 glasses (on average) a year, of sekt (carbonated wine). This is basically regular wine with 'gas' (carbonation).
On my top 40 German beverages....it's pretty near the bottom, and I doubt if I drink more than 5 glasses per year myself.
5. All 'hell' breaking loose in January and February with property tax revisions being mailed-out and the election in late Feb?
Well....yeah, this is now quietly being discussed.
The entire national property tax 'change' has been in the works for 3 years, and some folks started in November getting their assessments. Most will agree...it's anywhere from 10-percent 'up' to 200-percent 'up'.
For my wife, the normal property tax before this change.....was 600 Euro a year. She's still waiting, and if this were to triple up....she'd be fairly disgruntled.
Affecting the outcome for either the CDU-CSU or SPD? If these new assessments of property tax get mailed out and anger a lot of people....I could see the AfD quietly saying the whole revision was done wrong, and getting extra votes.
Just funny on the timing of this property-tax reform, and how it has to climb upwards in a drastic way.
Footnote, this is the money that the local community/city....keeps on their own, without state or federal involvement.
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