The Arena-Show From Monday Night

ARD ran a forum (live) show last night....with SPD's Lars Klingbeil.

I watched probably around 25 minutes of it.  Two obvious notes:

First, Lars wore a suit, and was sweating at 200-percent....it was literally dripping off his head....onto the suit, and as much as he could wipe.....it just continued on, and on.

I felt sorry for the guy.  The studio was definitely not air conditioned.

Second, at some point....an older gal asked a question about the incoming migration folks, and if we really needed migrant-bus-drivers from South Africa or care-givers from the Philippines.

I paused over it....it was a blunt question.

So....if you go to any urban area (Bremen, Hamburg, Munich, Frankfurt, Erfurt, etc)....they have a shortage of bus-drivers.  If you go back five or six years ago....the bus companies made up for the problem by recruiting  French, Spanish and Greek drivers.  You came in....showing you could speak some German...had a license....and had a 3-to-6 month contract.....while staying in a hotel locally (paid by the bus company).

Inability of the cities to attract drivers locally?  Well....yeah.

Part of the blame is shift-work....part is the pay-scale.  

Care-givers the same way?  Yeah.  I went to a German  class in 2016....Czech gal....was offered a pretty heft pay-situation (in her mind) to work at a local retiree-home in Wiesbaden.  But she had to speak at  x-level for the job.

Again....same deal....shift-work, and limited pay-scale.

9 June 2026: Germany: 5 Stories

 1.  Last year.....about this time....my wife and I got a info sheet....a 'company' (leaving out their name) had won the contract to supply the village with fiber-optic (upgrade). They would dig up the pavement....lay the new fiber....arrive in person in spring 2026....deliver a new router, and hook us up.

Ok.....so the crew in the fall of 2025 started digging.  Oddly, they were all Albanian.  There were various issues but they eventually completed the fiber project.

Turning this on and delivering the router?  Well....delayed.

So yesterday....I was reading through news, and this odd topic came up.  The fiber company, the installation crew company (the Albanians), and several associate companies....under some fed investigation here in the region.  Cronyism and 'deals' accusation.

The odds that the new fiber deal will get turned on in 2026?  I'd say zero.  The original 'winner' of the contract....getting to keep the contract?  Unknown.  The unknowns settled by the end of 2027?  Well....unknown.

2.  Björn Höcke (the 'evil' AfD politician)....gave a speech over the weekend.  He basically went and said that West Germans are "German-speaking Americans."  

In his reality several million people in the East of Germany.....are "still Germans."

Naturally, I went to the German wife....asking her (originally a Hessen and  West German)....if she had become Americanized.  This spun her up.....probably was the wrong question to ask.

Now, if you were asking me (the American).....if western Germans were Americanized?  I'd say that the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s....Germans themselves had laid out a path for Germans where various American 'things' had been inserted into German society, and in urbanized areas (like Hamburg, Frankfurt, Mainz, Wiesbaden, Koln)....yeah....folks had been conditioned in some ways to be German-Americans.

Eastern Germans saved from this terrible 'suffering'?  I assume Björn Höcke believes that.

If Germans believed this idea?  Well....they'd have to purify themselves....get 'cleaned-up', and revert back to the German condition of the 1920s or prior.  Pretty confusing, if you asked me.

3.  I did watch the 45-minute piece of ARD last night....'The WM Cup in Trump's America'.

I'll just say....it was confusing.

If you were trying to get some World Cup insight.....it was marginal.

If you were trying to understand sports content in America....it was marginal.

If you were trying to get hyped-up (more-so) on anti-Trump stuff....well....you might have a dose.

They did about 10 minutes of Ultimate-Fighting chatter.....acting like it only occurs in the US.  I was shaking my head....UFC is German based as well....these two journalists obviously lack German sports knowledge.

4.  WELT piece: Study done.....German public support for 'queer' people on the decline.

I sat and pondered over this. If you were asking me on German sentiment....they frankly don't care. If you want to be into weird/kinky stuff....just do it and don't make a theatrical show out of it.

5.  Oddly, Russia is suffering through a gas/diesel fuel shortage.  You line up at a station, and figure an  hour minimum waiting.  

If On Welfare/Burgergeld In Germany, Do You Have To Report Income From Picking Up Bottles?

 If you walk around urban zones in Germany on an average day....you probably will notice a minimum of forty folks....looking for cans/bottles.  Finding some....they will supplement their 'lifestyle'.

Average?  Super-aggressive types...on a four-hour walk....might collect 40 Euro for a week.  Most folks....probably get in the range of ten to fifteen Euro a week.

So the social office will ask about 'extra' income, and if you were truthful....you might find a rule in place....which generally states....anything that amounts to over fifty Euro a month....detracts that amount from your next month's welfare check.

This came up recently in Hamburg, with a 75-year-old German guy admitting in the range of 58.25 Euro for a month.  I guess the guy was overly 'honest'.

Couple of years ago....some news group followed a guy and his teenage son....who had a particular route through a soccer stadium area and downtown section.....who had several bags.  They had over 200 Euro  for the day in collections.

8 June 2026: Germany: 3 Stories

 1.  Via the ARD public forum show last night (Miosga)....question came up to  Bärbel Bas (SPD, Minister of Labor)....how exactly can the taxation/social pension program carry the 'weight'  to produce....Bas more or less responds....the older generation and women will likely have to carry the burden (not young migrant guys).

This is an odd argument that you continually these day....with stagnation, Germany is not functioning like it was 20-to-30 years ago.

2.  Noted this story over in eastern Germany.....Cops in Großziethen (Dahme-Spreewald) came across a 6-year old boy....traveling alone on an e-scooter.  Problem is....no license plate....no insurance....unaccompanied.  I doubt that the kid knew the law.

3.  I watched the US-Germany soccer game on Saturday evening....Germany won 2-1.  I have to say....Germany was not dominating the game.  If this is the style of the team for 2026....they won't be in the final four.

What Exactly Is The Scandal That Jens Spahn Can Never Escape From?

 CDU politician Jens Spahn up until the Covid era....was probably everyone's top five list for the right-of-center party.  In Merkel's last coalition....he was given the lite-duty of Health Minister.  

So as Covid arrived....there was this funny path for protective masks....where originally....THE expert (medical-virus guy....not Spahn) said masks weren't going to be necessary.  About six weeks later....the authorities determined masks  were necessary.

This problem erupted (I saw it approaching 6 weeks prior).....they (the commercial reality) simply did NOT have sufficient masks on hand....to meet the requirement.

Spahn went and did something fairly stupid....he put up a requirement for masks....without signed contracts or a clear understanding of the business-world.

Plane-loads of masks slowly began to arrive....on top of what stores/pharmacies ordered.

What you started to notice....the gov't  pallets....weren't really  planned out well....so they started to store them in military-storage.....then it got into overflow situation.  Quality?  Well....that was hit-and-miss.  Some Chinese masks were correct....some were crap.

By the time Covid had ended....Spahn's mess to clean up....added up to around  8-to-10 billion Euro.

Yeah....because of poor management....legal matters started up.   Best guess currently....around 100-million Euro in legal costs have been put upon the gov't.

Spahn's fault?  I don't think he ever understood the logistical side of the issue. Even if you quizzed the forty-odd staff members around him....I don't think nothing more than strictly virus-experts...not med-parts experts.

If you were to explain to the public....how ten-odd billion was spent....they'd start laughing. 

Where the masks are today?  I suspect....still in some military storage bunker. 

Firing Story

 This past week....ZDF (Channel 2 of public TV in Germany) did a news piece with a employee of the Bremen Job-Center (the folks who approve/disapprove your welfare pay-situation).

He'd been in the job for around 20 years.

So he said in a blunt way.....on his personal belief....around 30 to 40 percent of folks in  Bremen were approved for welfare/burgergeld....were capable of working and in some way....should have been 'pushed'.

Well...after the TV episode....management at the Bremen Job-Center got peeved, and have terminated the guy.

I would imagine that there's going  to be a rough reality for the judge who reviews the firing....with him likely admitting the guy is correct, and probably across all of Germany....the 30-to-40 percent number holds true.

Poll Reality

 INSA did a political poll.

So...it's an odd thing.  AfD would win  with 29-percent of the public vote in Germany, but be unable to get a partnership coalition. CDU-CSU in 2nd place with 21-percent.

SPD?  With 12-percent.  Greens with 14-percent.  Linke with 11-percent.

BSW and FDP?  Still at 3-percent.....thus getting no seats.

The 'Other' People

 Some lefty-party member of the Bundestag....stood up yesterday and admitted....in just four years of 'service' in the Bundestag....a member  could make what takes a normal German three decades to accumulate such 'wealth'.

I paused over the chatter.

First, living in Berlin is awful damn expensive.  For a plate of something that I'd  pay 12 Euro in Mainz for....you'd have to pay near 16 Euro in Berlin.

Second, it just seems to me....working around Bundestag folks....you have to accept a certain amount of stupidity and you ought to be paid more  for this type of situation.

Third and final....I suspect if you asked a hundred Germans if they'd take up a Bundestag job....probably 95-percent would say no.....claiming they don't have patience to do BS-work.

I'm now waiting for the lefty-member to get a EU job, and suggest the same problem there.