Tuesday, March 19, 2024

19 March 2024: Five German News Stories

 1.  Focus did a survey of Germans on the war-business.

Three-quarters of Germans responding....said they have no confidence in the Bundeswehr (meaning to carry out the defense of the homeland).

Roughly same number said that the gov't has to give the Bundeswehr more funding.

Two of three responded on bringing back the conscription business (the draft) as being right.

One out of three Germans responding said that they would 'stand-up' and participate in the defense of Germany.  

This is one of those topics that no one in Germany would have expected thirty years ago.

2  Some areas of Germany expecting snow this weekend.  It's been spring-like for almost eight weeks now.

3.  Syphilis numbers on a big surge in Bavaria.....not a lot of explanation on details.

4.  Some hyped-up worry that German kids are chatting in chat-rooms on extremism and far-right-wing stuff.  Teachers aggravated by this, and questions come up now over how you handle a group of 12-year-old radicals. 

5.  Just an odd lead-in story last night on ARD prime news.....Microsoft has presented plans for a massive data center....in the far NW of Germany....in what was a open-pit coal-pit.  Two data centers are planned out.  

Microsoft says they will train up to 1.2 million Germans in AI.

Based on the agreement from a decade ago to ease out of the coal business....the gov't gave the region billions of Euro to cover the clean-up and the re-training of personnel.  I suspect a lot of this money will come to Microsoft to pay for their investment in the region.

Getting coal-miners into the tech field?  This part....I'm not that sure about.

Monday, March 18, 2024

A Walk

 I spent the afternoon in the Wiesbaden shopping district.  

My secondary task while walking?  Well...counting closed establishments.  From end to end (including side-streets)....I counted around 25 empty 'fronts'.  

One major store...which used to be a two-story sports shop?  Well....it's just one floor active...the second story is empty.

A sign of the times?  Well....I think there are just fewer people with ample cash in their pocket, and they are more careful now....than five years ago.

The one oddity among new shops?  There's a Cin-a-bun-like shop that opened.  My impression...some partnership with a Turkish baker, and they painted up a new shop....bright lights, and big huge display to attract people to the front-window. 

Germans are typically NOT sugar freaks, and the US Cin-a-bun stuff....doesn't typically appeal to folks.

18 Jan 2024: Four German News Stories

 1.  Somewhere on Saturday evening....in the Neukolln neighborhood of Berlin....a fight started up.  By the time that the local police arrived.....there were about 60 individuals in some form of 'combat'.  Cause?  Unknown.  

2.  Some German car dealerships are having 'talks'.  The issue?  The whole strategy with bringing E-cars out and thinking they would sell?  Gone wrong.

I suspect the dealerships are about to tell Mercedes, VW and the rest.....halt the massive manufacturing 'strategy' of E-cars, and go back to the gas/diesel car plan.  

3.  For a number of months, the Economics Minister (Habeck, Green Party) has had 'help-funding' go out for certain industries in Germany....subsidies.  Into the billions of Euro.

Well....eleven countries in the EU have sent letters into the EU and said it's illegal on what he's doing.

After reading through the pieces....appears a good bit in Sunday news commentary, I'd say they have a legit case, and Germany will have to pay some fine.  

It's amusing, without the financial help....couple hundred thousand Germans would have been put on furlough or cut.  

4.  2nd volcano 'leak' appearing a couple of miles away from the original point in Iceland.  No towns in the vicinity.

Sunday, March 17, 2024

Should German Students Get A Reality Dose Over The Ukrainian War Business?

 The head of the federal gov't school business has come up in recent days to say....maybe bringing Bundeswehr soldiers to explain war...in the classroom....is wise.

I sat and pondered over this.

As a kid (rural America), we had a teacher or two who were vets out of WW II/Vietnam.  War was rarely brought up and on the rare occasions....it was pretty strongly emphasized....you just don't want to be in the middle of some jungle or French field with war going on.

At some event....probably around age 16, some Vietnam vet got into a long descriptive piece about his year, and went into graphic detail.  He had about a dozen attacks 'etched' into his mind and it was obvious that the stress of things bothered him.

In this case of the German soldiers?  The majority of them (I would guess 90-percent) would not be the kind of folks you'd want to come into a class and give a one-hour 'talk' over the war and the looming impact on Germany.  I might go and say that fewer than 200 soldiers have the mindset to lay out the 'talk' and answer the stupid questions at the end.

The fact that we are at the beginning of year three of the war?  Yeah, this is probably getting the point across that year four, and year five will come. 

Those 90-year old German soldiers from WW II? Well....you could bring them in, but then you've got to talk over Nazis.

Some students unable to handle this talk?  Oh, I would imagine more than a quarter would be disturbed by the war talk and the potential that it might one day come to Germany.

All of this being something unusual for German society?  Yeah, that's the weird  part.  A lot of Germans born after WW II....don't have the thought process to handle this, and half the nation thought that when the 'Cold War' ended.....peace was evident. 

17 Jan 2024: Six German News Stories

 1.  Just an odd story from  Friday....Berlin police officers pulled some German guy over on Charlottenstrasse (mid-Berlin) who had no license plate on his E-Scooter.

An inspection occurs.  It's a modified E-scooter.

From what they can figure....it's built in some way to get up to 128 kph.  Illegal?  OH YEAH.

Problems for the 58-year-old guy?  No insurance, no license and a illegally modified E-scooter.

2.  CDU's 'boss' (Merz)...said he wants a national policy....no more than 100,000 migrants a year coming in.  

If you did the general average presently?  It's in the 200k to 300k range.  

SPD, Green voters?  No, they won't agree to that.  In Bavaria?  I would imagine 75-percent of voters would pursue this idea.

3.  The Education Minister has spoke up in Germany about the idea of having civil defense classes for German kids.  

4.  BND (the German version of the CIA) is upping a recruitment program...to bring new people in.

5.  There is some talk about a new program....where German soldiers would come into classrooms...NOT for recruitment purposes,  but to explain the war in the Ukraine. 

Just from the chatter....I would imagine that most teachers are not qualified to explain the Ukraine-Russia war, or the harsh details.  Course, if you asked me if a class of 25 German 15-year old kids could handle this....I'd say more than half should not get the lecture and could not handle the conversation.

The same group would be shocked when some history element comes up and WW II is mentioned, and they know little to nothing over the war.

6.  Odd story out of Focus....affecting the town of Heide (extreme far north of Germany). 

From the description, over the past year...a 'gang' of 14-to-18 year old Germans had formed up, and conducted threats against the residents of the town.  Cops finally stepped in....arresting several...charging them, and the court system has a conviction on a couple.

Saturday, March 16, 2024

16 Mar 2024: Seven German News Stories

 1.  The German Constitutional Court asked for a law to deal with underage marriages...something that lingers from migration.

So the Justice Ministry has a draft and will pursue getting the Bundestag to pass it.  Basic wording?  If a marriage from outside of Germany was performed, and either of the two were under 16....the marriage will not be recognized.

The scenario where you had a 2010 marriage where some 12-year old girl was married to a 16-year old boy?  Well....if they enter Germany.....if the law passes...the marriage would not be recognized.  

Forcing the EU to enter and create a law themselves?  Yes, I would suggest that.

2.  German C02 emissions fell by 10-percent in 2023.  You can allow up up a bottle of Champaign tonight and celebrate.

3.  The EU congratulated Putin on winning Russia election....even though the election is not completed until Sunday.  They kinda know.....already....he can only be the winner.

4.  Martin Winterkorn, former VW CEO, is facing court action...a serious high fine because of suspicion of fraud.

5.   About ten days ago....this story and images come out of France's Macron and his 'older' wife to the US.  Just as facts....she's 70 (25 years older than Macron).  So the twist to this....some BS started up that she's trans.

I've looked over this story, and find it interesting (100-percent BS).....and wonder how this suddenly comes up out of nowhere.  The age thing? Well....back at the end of 2016.....this whole story was laid out.  I have no idea how Americans missed the that story.

6.  The EU on Friday passed a law....NOT one single tree can be cut down.....to plant a coffee 'plant'....meaning not just in Europe, but you can't even import coffee from the rest of the NON-EU world....if this is the situation.

For those who haven't noticed it....steep rise in coffee prices and spiral will continue.

7.  EU suing Greece?  Well.....yes.  The accusation?  All these floods....they say Greek communities were unprepared, and they want to make an example out of them.

Friday, March 15, 2024

15 Mar 2024: Eight German News Stories

 1.  WELT wrote a piece late yesterday (Thur) over retirement pensions in Germany.  By 2070, every third German will be a retiree, and basically....the current system WILL NOT be able cover such an environment.  

I doubt if the Bundestag wants to discuss this...but it'll be a 5-star mess to evolve.

2.  WELT also wrote a piece over young Germans looking at the university path and future employment.  There's a belief within this group....that jobs (demanding and well-paid jobs)....won't be in Germany, and that a fair number of young Germans will be exiting Germany.

3.  The Fridays-For-The-Future 'kids' believe that the news media is suppressing their 'message'/brand.  

To be honest, I suspect most of the news sources in Germany have come to realize that the public doesn't want a message from teenagers or college kids.

4.  In Osnabruck, some 15-year old German kid was chased by cops....going up to speeds of 170 kph in the city.  

I doubt if he ever gets a license.

5.  The German Constitutional Court?  Well....they have a new announcement coming up....over budgets created in the Covid period, and it might go heavily against the SPD-coalition....meaning 'gifts' they designed....will be dissolved.

6.  Italian cops caught some 103-year-old Italy lady....driving....at night....without a license.  This was apparently late at night in some town....where the lady was 'lost' and the cops approached the car to ask if she needed help.  They were nice about it....just giving her a traffic ticket, and a warning about NOT driving.  Then they drove her to her residence.  Insurance and registration weren't mentioned.

7.  N-TV piece: Since 2020....6,100 German restaurants have declared bankruptcy.  In 2023.....14,000 restaurants gave up and closed their doors.

8.  Big long report in Focus this AM....describing the reasons believed for half of all young Germans failing the drivers exam on the first round. This psychology professor says there is generally a decline in performance among young Germans. A lot of this has to do with understanding theory and coming to a conclusion (quickly).

Thursday, March 14, 2024

14 March 2024: Ten German News Stories

 1.  Bus strike in my town (Wiesbaden).....yesterday, today and Friday.  Stressing the locals.

2. Focus pointed out....if you go out and have what is a traditional German breakfast at a cafe...everything with coffee....it is almost 20 Euro now.  

3.  Just curious....there are two Red Army Faction guys that the police are searching for.  From what the police discovered.....the one guy...Burkhard Garweg....before the search got 'hot'....ran a forgery workshop. Yeah, he was helping to train people on the art of forging.

4.  Interesting statistic....more E-bikes are now bought over non-battery (normal) bicycles in Germany.

5.  For 2023, VW now says it cleared 18-billion Euro PROFIT.  That's around 13-percent more than 2022

6.  N-TV did a piece yesterday talking about influencers on social media.  If the person you watch is an 'expert' on money (so they claim).....the odds are (by true experts)....that 94-percent are incompetent on money and finances.  Pretty wild discussion.  

From an American prospective with finance podcasts....I'd agree that about fifty percent are giving you crappy advice.  

7. Poland's President is telling the rest off NATO....stop calculating on a 2-percent number to devote to defense....start calculating on 3-percent.  German leadership will go nuts over that idea.

8. German weather guys talking about a vortex change....with a late cold front hitting in April (call it a Arctic blast).  I will say from New Years on....it's been an awful mild winter, and my heating bill will  probably be one-third less than normal.  I haven't put salt out on the sidewalk since late November.

9.  This whole Taurus missile discussion got dragged out in the Bundestag yesterday.  Scholz had to go and defend the position of saying 'NO' to handing the missiles to the Ukrainian army.

Just some humble analysis.....this is a bunker-buster type missile.  You wouldn't use it on bridges, tanks, or fuel depots (economically, it makes no sense to waste a million-Euro missile on small targets).  Are there that many bunkers in the eastern side of Ukraine that the Russians operate?  I just don't see the logic.  But for Scholz....his defensive position is inviting criticism by various other parties.  

10.  RTL-TV will be running a new show called 'The Golden Bachelor'.....meaning they have some German guy in his 70s....with eligible ladies 60 and over.  Most of the past shows have been fairly sensual/sexual....so it'll be interesting how this sells.