Just A Funny Thing

 There's a state election coming up in the Pfalz shortly.   So....SWR, the public TV network for the region...went and had what I'd call a election arena public forum....with the various big parties running.

Various topics covered....one intensely.....climate-change.

I'm not saying it's a top ten issue with voters...maybe if you had 16-to-25 year  old voters....it might be in their top ten topics.  

So, as each candidate is tossed the question.....you start to notice the camera angle.

They had a audience surround the six folks.....I thought it was a odd prospective...usually the public would be facing the stage.

So as the CDU guy gave his response.....camera captures the 3 public folks sitting behind the CDU guy....mostly grinning and shaking their head over his response.

Intentional?  Well....I'd like to think it was accidental that they had the stage set this way, the camera angle set in a funny way, and had three anti-CDU folks behind the CDU candidate.

Could the camera deal and three 'jokers' shift 10,000 voters?  I doubt it. But this race is fairly close on the CDU and SPD split of voters....it might only be a CDU win by 2,000 votes.  

Footnote: You could probably ask 10,000 folks who watched and if they noticed the camera angle/shaking heads.....and fewer than 300 noted it (my guess). I should  also note....there was a soccer game on at the same time, and most Pfalz guys were probably watching the game.  

Citizen Patrol Idea

 Hennigsdorf, town of 26,000....about an hour outside of Berlin.

They have a decent train station there....mostly to get people back and forth to Berlin. 

So....crimes are up for some reason....in and around the station.

Locals approached the city council and appealed for voluntary citizen patrols are to ensure more order around the train station.

I pondered this idea....you don't see voluntary citizen patrols in Germany much.  Who would likely be on such patrols?  I reckon....older retirees. Probably three or four older folks....with cellphones, and a jacket to identify their organization.

Picking on young punks who loiter mostly?  Yeah...very likely.

The problem I see...in six months....they might actually lessen the crime rate....by driving the 'bad-boys' to leave.  Then other cities would  jump in and advocate citizen patrols.

I'm not saying it's bad thing....but it's a magnet for AfD folks to participate in 'guard-duty'. 

Fuel Prices

 I had to fill the tank up yesterday for the Audi.....2.06 Euro per liter, E10-type fuel.

Yeah....outrageous.

Last night via the news....they showed German crossing the border into  Poland.....E-10 fuel there was 1.38 Euro per liter.

Lot of Germans now asking how this is possible, or how the taxation stuff is rigged against the consumer.

14 Mar 2026: Germany: 5 Stories

 1. This court-action to force the release of the Merkel Stassi file....is dragged up a good bit on social media.  Court said 'no'....only Merkel herself can request and see the file.....general rule since the 1990s for any East German individual.

Virtually every single East German had a file....the question is....were  you special enough to be a reporting agent on work-associates, neighbors, friends?

The most that would probably be in the Merkel folder?  She probably reported on two-dozen folks....that they were pro-capitalists or anti-communist.  I don't see the value of dumping this file.  You might find where some neighbor described Merkel  that she was lacking intellectual capabilities.

2.  Economist Clemens Fuest gave a talk yesterday....saying that Germany has decided to be "a country where energy is scarce." His conclusion: "Energy-intensive industry has no future here." 

My own observation....if you manufacture anything that requires power off the grid.....you can do it cheaper in Poland or Czech.

3. WELT item: German gov't notes....more Ukrainian draft-age men showing up in Germany....getting around the exit-ban.

Draft age: 18 to 63.

4. 15-year-old German kid in Wiesbaden...stole a city bus, and drove to Karsruh....to take his GF to school one morning.

5.  Mojtaba Khamenei, Iran's new Grand Ayatollah (for the past week)...reportedly possesses a vast fortune, which he hides outside of Iran. Rumor....he has two luxury hotels in Germany.  

Crime Story

 I sat and analyzed a news piece.

There was this parliamentary inquiry (question) posed by Thuringian Member of Parliament Robert Teske (AfD).

It went to the Federal Ministry of the Interior....asking about crime on trains and within train-stations....in Thuringa.

A big state?  No....roughly 2.1-million...one of the smaller German  states.  Jena, Gera and Erfurt are the metro-cities of the state.

So  for railway and station offenses....for 2025....8,342 total.

So....here's the odd part of the inquirty....it asked about nationalities.

Of the 4,368 suspects identified, 2,533 were non-German, or approximately 58 percent. 1,835 suspects were German, representing about 42 percent. For state numbers....only around 10-percent of the state population is non-German. So yeah, an overwhelming number of 'bad-boys' are involved in crime, and non-German.

This affecting the 2029 state election?  Presently, in polling, AfD leads with around 39-percent of public support, with the CDU in 2nd place with 24-percent. 

Just a humble guess....unless crime numbers reverse....you can probably add  another 5-percent to AfD over the next two years.  

The odd question  I would be asking....why so much crime around trains and train-stations?  A magnet for trouble?

13 Mar: Germany: 4 Stories

 1.  Pfalz state polling:  CDU likely to win with 29-percent of the vote, with SPD near 28-percent.

AfD polling near 19-percent.   Linke Party at 5-percent (questionable if they fail).  Green Party near 8-percent.

So....at best....four parties get seats....maybe five. Coalition?  CDU-SPD.

2. Tuesday night.....around 7PM....BER (Berlin Airport) shutdown operations over a drone for about an hour.

3.Becoming apparent that the CSU Party (only in Bavaria)....will push to bring nuclear energy back....while the sister party (CDU)....is firmly against the idea.

4. Merkel's records with the Stassi....officially closed off....will not be released.

Dynamic?  Accusations that she was a insider to the Stassi...in her youth.  Proof?  None, unless the records were opened....court refused to order this.

Mildly amusing....she's been 'gone' for five years, and this comes up now.

Key question....around 1990....as the Kohl team searched for key figures in the old DDR for the CDU Party....did they have access to the Stassi files? I doubt it. 

Letter Story

 In the mailbox today....was a Wiesbaden gov't letter addressed to me...more or less...a format letter.

Dear so-and-so....we noticed....you've been a 'guest-with-a-visa' for a dozen years....wouldn't you like to apply to be a citizen?

I paused over it....they listed five or six benefits (like I could vote....particularly in EU elections).  

To be rather honest....I'm here mostly because of my wife.  I could just as well move to Italy, Greece or Den Haag. 

Me being a pleasant 'guest'?  Well....other than a daily cynical comment or two....some weekly grumbling over the Bahn travel....I've tried to be a 'nice-guest'.  

Them needing more citizens?  I looked it up from 2015 to  2025....near 240k to 280k Germans a year.....who exit/leave.  Yeah.....they need to keep pestering folks to either become citizens or come in. I'd almost suggest they need a HR-office to recruit Koreans or Australians to come in.

Is The SPD Party 'Dying-Off'?

 For well over a hundred years....the Social Democrats have existed....leaning just left-of-center.   From 1949 to the early 1990s...they could manage to get in the range of 40-percent of the vote....sometimes bumping over 45-percent.

If you look nationally today....with the Greens, Linke Party and BSW....at best, the SPD can only manage around 16-to-20 percent of the vote.

With the state election of the past weekend....it was in the 10-percent range (crappy range).

If you asked about any 'stars' for the party....nationally....there's not much to talk about.

Some folks gaze at the decline of the FDP Party, and remark that they probably will never get above 5-percent nationally ever again...then suggest that the SPD is following the same path.