1. It does appear that the President is giving until 11 November for PM Tusk to clean up the coup-mess. No idea where this is leading to.
2. NATO military exercise....from 9–22 November, Exercise Koalicja. Will be mostly around the Nowa Deba area. 11 country participants. Probably in the range of 5,000 to 10,000 'players'.
3. Shooting suspect family....father, mother and sister....shot dead.
What we now know:
- It was a 24-year-old Polish guy.
- Location: Kraków’s Main Market Square (Rynek Główny) (Sat afternoon).
- Dead: six people. Wounded: 16.
- Three additional bodies found at his residence (family members.
- Semi-auto rifle used.
- Wore military style clothing, with a bulletproof vest.
- Limited police action in the first three minutes....one team arrived (2 police).....one shot dead....other wounded, but shot enough to take down the shooter.
- Shooter still alive presently.
- Had a job....was a wood-work guy.
- No criminal record. He had a permit to own weapons (under his name....owned 2). His dad had a permit (owned dozen).
- Curious background noted....goth-lifestyle, painted black nails, into heavy metal, announced himself to be a antifascist.
- Interior Minister made a statement....suggesting shooter was fascinated by right-wing BS (trying to get public hyped-up that right-wing idiots are threats).....when the guy was a antifascist.
- Odd factor....LGBTQ-connected, and had social media commentary that seem to be anti-Christian.
- Finally, I noted from a journalist who walked and talked to people who knew the shooter....most all described him as a 'kook' (my word)....odd character who seemed to want to shock people....wore black clothing when out, and had some weird fascination with gas-masks.
Five dead...around 11 wounded. Attacker appears to be Polish national....had a automatic rifle. Zero motive given.
Starting Monday...GEZ (the money-handler of public TV----ARD/ZDF) will start a audit to find and force Germans to pay the TV tax.
How many are avoiding it? Around 3.6-million 'homes' is the best guess (from 2025 data).
Cost per month? 18.36 Euro.
Any idea of who the folks are? Zero (it's like a missing chunk of reality).
My best guess? I'd guess that a 1-to-1.5 million 'homes' are likely non-German or 'guests'....with no intention of paying for what they don't watch.
What it'd add up to....if they forced them to pay? Per year.....660 million.
What I suspect they will find? Three odd things. First...at least 100,000 residences empty (long-term)....mostly from dead Germans. Second, somewhere in the range of this....are vacation cabins/mini-homes...maybe 100,000 to 200,000. Third and final....apartment buildings throughout Germany that are simply empty....for money-laundering purposes....in the range of 500,000 apartments.
Avoiding the tax? Once they re-labeled this to say if you have no TV antenna, or NO TV, or NO Radio....but you had internet....you still have to pay the tax. I would imagine there being probably a quarter million older Germans with only radio....living way out in the boonies.
1. Poll done in the state of Thuringia....next election is fall of 2029.
Poll results (INSA): AfD Party leads with 40-percent of the public. CDU at 18-percent. Linke Party at 17-percent. SPD at 8-percent. BSW at 5-percent. Everyone else below 5-percent.
2. Gen-Z riot wounded from last weekend? Nationally, its around 340 police who ended up at a ambulance or hospital.
3. Some belief (marginal facts)....that in October....Russia 'lost' 45,000 soldiers, from the war.
4. With the death of the Free-Voter Party 'boss'....there's going to be a long discussion about the replacement figure.
5. Four groups have protest 'permits' in Frankfurt for today (Sat). Primary group? Iranian opposition rally, with 30,000 expected.
6. European Commission proposed yesterday....extending Poland’s exemption from EU migrant relocation rules.
7. PM Tusk had some kind of short exchange yesterday with a journalist from Republicika (right-wing news)....got pretty heated.
8. Poland’s Internal Security Agency (ABW)....arrested five Poles and one Russian woman. Crime suggested? They were supplying military components to Russia (sanctions made this a fed-crime).
9. Some suggestion that Poland's President has given PM Tusk until 11 November....to reverse the current 'mess'. What would happen after 11 November? Unknown.
Over the past decade....I've grown a fondness for apple-wine (apple-cider)...German-style.
So in my Hessen state....there's two primary companies that market the stuff. You can buy it in bottles, or cans.
When I started to get attached to the stuff...if was 99-Euro-cents per can. That was back in 2017.
I stood in the local grocery yesterday (end of 2026), and pricing was 1.49 Euro (per can). Yeah, roughly a 50-percent inflation rate over 9 years.
I brought this up to the wife, and she rattled off two-dozen products....same trend....50-percent gain since the year or two prior to Covid.
We ate out last night...local German restaurant....end-price (with tip)....68 Euro. It would have been 50 Euro eight years ago.
1. New poll done...majority of Poles responded that PM Musk probably needs to go (sooner, rather than later).
2. GDP appearance presently....at pace of things....Poland will exceed Switzerland (Jan 2027 expectation).
3. Police-riot control were asked to keep big presence at the Supreme Court/Constitutional Court building. Police responded....they'd keep a small crew around but refused to go maximum-force.
4. Poland's Central-Bank...reached goal of 700 tons of gold (most ever held by the bank).
5. Chinese fast-fashion platform....Shein....announced plans for a half-billion-euro logistics investment near Warsaw.
What does fast-fashion typically mean? You have influencers out there (across Europe) hyping fashion trends....folks get 'hot'....design crew shifts in a matter of hours to new trend....ships out of the hub. Fairly divided....positive and negative.
6. Standoff over Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal (TK) intensified.
Deputy Prime Minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz (PSL) presented a draft constitutional amendment to end the mandates of all current national judges, grant them retired status, and elect a new 15-judge bench via the National Assembly (with staggered 3-, 6-, and 9-year terms) by a three-fifths majority. The goal is to de-escalate the conflict between the Tusk government and President Karol Nawrocki/PiS.
Tusk goal? Pro-abortion judges. Nawrock goal? Anti-abortion judges.
Adding the three-fifths rule? Well....Tusk and Nawrocki crews....will not have ability to get names approved.
You might see months of inability to pass names, and national election comes in the fall (2027) to make it a huge problem (national issue).
Yesterday, I talked in detail of Poland 'laws' over abortion, and how it divides the country politically.
Germany, in the same comparison?
Germany allows 'practical' access to elective abortion in early pregnancy (with procedural requirements), while Poland currently has one of the strictest regimes in the EU.
German rules....abortion is regulated in the Criminal Code (§218 StGB). It is formally a criminal offense, but not punishable under defined conditions (§218a).
Counseling pathway occurs in 95-percent of cases....non-punishable if performed no later than 12 weeks after conception (roughly the end of the 14th week of pregnancy counted from the last menstrual period).
Added rule: If continuing the pregnancy endangers the woman’s life or risks serious impairment of her physical or mental health that cannot otherwise be averted.
Criminal rule? If the pregnancy results from a sexual offense (rape). Up to 12 weeks after conception. Counseling and the waiting period are not mandatory (though advice is offered); formal proof of the crime is not required beyond a doctor’s assessment.
The woman herself is also not punishable up to 22 weeks post-conception if counseling occurred and a doctor performed the procedure.
As for cost? Counseling-path abortions are usually paid by the patient (often a few hundred euros) unless low-income; medical and criminal-ground procedures are covered by statutory insurance.
German statistics over a normal year....around 100,000 abortions.
Politically? This agreement ensure no toxic infighting...like you see in Poland presently.
