Protest From Friday

 I sat and watched a ZDF (German public TV, Channel 2) news piece last night and it's been on my mind.

Apparently....Friday morning....somewhere between 40,000 and 50,000 German school kids (mostly from highly urbanized regions of the country) took to the streets in a protest.  News folks say a hundred cities....I have my doubts on this part of the story.

Gimmick? Against the mid-2027 conscription/draft development.  

The way that the gov't objective is laid out?  There's a goal of x-number of folks coming forward and avoiding the yearly 'lotto' (you might win---thus avoid the draft....you might lose---getting drafted).  

As of late August (2026)....they are meeting the goal (marginally).  For 2027's goal....anyone's guess. Even if they fell 1,200 under the goal....the draft would only involve 1,200 guys.  

Watching the protest video....oddly, there are a fair number of non-school 'kids' in the protest.  I'd go and suggest 10-percent were NOT 'kids' (young adult men/women in their 20s/30s).

Organized?  Well....yeah, that thought came up several times in the news piece.  I'm not saying the Russians, or even the CIA....but it's obvious that some higher level of 'management' is involved.

Die WELT (newspaper) had a poll....asking ALL Germans about approval for the draft....it's up around 58-percent....meaning 40-percent aren't supporting it.  They also did a youth poll...61-percent OPPOSE the draft/conscription deal.

National chaos approaching?  You know....the Ukraine/Russia war has changed the prospective of a lot of Germans (including school 'kids').  If Putin were 'stupid' and triggered some kind of internal chaos....I have my doubts that the youth of Germany would support a war effort.

The one funny thing?  Recruitment right now....includes both young men and ladies.  Conscription/draft?  It only starts up with young men (no ladies).  

Yearly recruitment for ladies?  It stays around 13-percent....year by year.  

26 Sep 2026: Germany: 6 Stories

 1.  What the savings are for the 1 Oct gas-price change (due to tax cut temporarily)?  For a refueling (figure 30 liters)....about 10 Euro.  The change lasts for about 3 months.

2.  Bill Gates gave a talk this week, which got hyped-up by German newspapers/networks....saying around 1-billion people may die due to AI.

A lot of BS sprinkled around this topic.  If you crunched the numbers for Germany's 84-million population....probably 10-million Germans must die, for this theory/idea to work.  No explanation on how the folks will die.

On my doom-BS-meter (1-to-10)....this ranks about a '99' (way past turbo-BS).

3.  Saxony-Anhalt....pretty clear now....AfD and BSW will have a coalition.

4.  Ankle-monitors are a new trend in Germany....mostly where you have right-wing convicted folks.  So it came up this week....the police union of Germany wants the monitors prescribed for left-wing convicted folks as well.

5  Some demonstrations yesterday....by older school kids...against the conscription idea/draft.  

6.  Starting in November....new EU 'fee' is established...2 Euro.  If you order a product (like from Amazon) and the distributor is NON-EU....for the order, you pay 2 Euro.  Whether or not China accepts this rule, or starts a counter-rule against the EU....unknown.

My Pfalz (State) Speeding Ticket

 So the official ticket came today....registered mail.

Usually....over 20 years...the only speeding tickets I've gotten in Germany....were in the state of Hessen.

This ticket was a bit unusual.  

First letter came....asking my wife (registered owner of the car) if she was guilty party, and she had to log onto a web-site for the state to say 'yes' or 'no'.  She said 'no', and referred my name as the guilty party.

Then came letter number two...same question.  I had to log on and say 'yes'....that I was the guilty party.

Today, came letter number three....registered mail.

Yeah, I was on the autobahn doing 118 kph (18 over the limit).  The normal amount is 60 Euro (by federal law), but the Pfalz tacked on 26 extra Euro....processing fee and mail-costs.

I asked the wife (being German) why such fees exists in one state but not another.  She responded....just pay the ticket.

Odd Weather Pattern

 Weather lady gave a talk this week on regional TV.  For Wiesbaden....for entire year of 2026...we are at 350-to-400 mm so far....about 50-percent of what is 'normal' rainfall.

For about 3 weeks in August....rain finally started up (almost every other day with a shower).  Past three weeks of September?  Nothing.

Drought-chatter?  Still mostly true.  

EU Fuel Chatter

 EU is talking over the idea of E-20 fuel (doubling up on E-10 idea).

More requirements for sugar beets?  Yeah.

More energy 'count' needed for a car to drive x-number of kilometers?  Yes....that is one disadvantage.

Pricing?  By the time you figure increasing sugar beet prices and higher consumption....I doubt that there is a gain.

If your car was made prior to 2010?  You probably ought to talk to your mechanic (I'd give you 50-50 odds that you shouldn't use the E-20 fuel).

25 Sep 2026: Germany: 4 Stories

 1.  Off ZDF (public TV, Channel 2) last night...came a live public forum show (Maybrit Illner Show).

Linke Party boss....Heidi Reichinnek....was featured.  Lot of push-back by other guests against image of the party being anti-Israel.  If you ask me....she did a crappy job in defending the party.

2.  Head of the German natural gas agency/storage....says unless a miracle occurs on LNG delivery in the next month....there's likely to be some 'limits' put upon the public to make it through the winter.  Suggestion is that actions of some type will start in Decemer.

My bet....natural gas homes will be asked to keep the temp at 17 C (63 F)

3.  Berlin (the city) has withdrawn it's bid for the Olympics.

4.  WELT piece this AM....interview with a AfD voter....20 years old....migration background....gay.  A lot for the anti-AfD crowd to consume and grasp.

5.  Geli Raubal was the half-sister of Hitler....dead by suicide in 1931.  Some recent history chatter going on....belief that Hitler himself may have shot Raubal.  Chatter was also going onto the idea that she (the half-sister) was having relations with Hitler.

End Of A Era

 My German wife is a consumed shopper....who at the end of a 'trip'....must take the paper-receipt, and walking to the car....is analyzing the paper receipt for mistakes.  About every forty-odd trips to the grocery....she'll note that Huns-the-clerk double-swiped the can of soup or bag of chips.  This halts the path to the car....while she grabs me and the cart....dragging us back into the grocery to resolve the 'problem'.

This AM....I noted a German law being drafted. At some point in 2028....the receipt-crap will go digital.

What this means for a German?  You will have a choice as you pay and leave....with NO print-out....the grocery-store will allow you to e-mail the receipt to your personal account, or allow you to scan a QR-code to your cellphone.

NO more paper receipts.  

I haven't brought this up to the wife.....I'm pretty sure she'll get hyped-up.  

24 Sep 2026: Germany: 4 Stories

 1.  Coach Klopp (new national soccer coach for Germany) has three rules added....no wives on team trips, you need to get your haircut business done prior to practice (or afterwards), and no cellphones at practice.  

2.  Several key SPD Party figures are saying that they'd rather not join a Linke Party-led coalition in Berlin (city).  Talk centers on some radical lefty positions of the Linke Party.

3.  Police in Berlin did a raid....finding a stash of weapons and some Nazi symbol BS.  

4.  Drone alert at BER (Berlin's Airport)....shut down the airport for 45 minutes.