I chatted about it earlier today. Police have released a piece on who they are looking for:
- approximately 1.80 to 1.90 meters tall, of dark skin type, with a slim build and short, dark hair.
= speaks broken German and was wearing a gray fleece jacket and jeans.
Village size? Well....around 5,200 residents....so I'd say it's not 'small'.
Oddly, no one has said much on 'knowing' the kid.
1. Half-time 'show' for last night....final game....basically a circus atmosphere.
2. The wife and I watched sixteen games over the past month. The least 'thrilling' game was last night....Argentina versus Spain. You could have skipped the whole first half entirely. How Argentina made it to the final sixteen teams? Unknown.
3. This fight-business at the end of the Argentina-Spain game....probably the more thrilling...of the game itself. Bad behavior on Argentina's part....I'd red-card every member of their team.
4. 'Freddy' the German....was probably the biggest draw for me....getting his daily reports on great things to see.....via Twitter.
5. I'm pretty convinced that AI has to arrive and replace the FIFA ref's....ASAP.
1. Saarbrucken area...Saturday evening....Syrian couple (early 30s)....argument develops. Husband threatens the wife with knife. She ends up on the roof of the building....chased around by the husband there....falls 8 meters to the ground. Injured.
Cops arrive with the ambulance crew. Husband arrested.
2. Village fest in Egling (Bavaria). Some nutcase comes at 8 folks with a knife. They are wounded but survive....nutcase escapes. No ID yet on the guy.
3. Weekend meeting of CDU.....they say they want a national policy....if there are any attacks and the police determine the origin of the attacker.....that it should be released to the public.
Nothing from the SPD or Greens, but I would guess they aren't that thrilled over the idea.
Even if the police release a statement with 'origin'.....I have my doubts that the public TV folks would talk about it.
4. Half-time show at World Cup....I would estimate that more than 50-percent of German viewers were annoyed by it.
Some business reporter brought up this topic this week....on VW and the impending cut of 100,000 potential employees.
Generally, the law says.....you need to compensate let-go folks....one month of pay....for each year you employed them.
Well...the journalists did a analysis....if you were a university engineer grad....cut....with 25 years of service (figure you are nearing 50 years old). Ballpark pay-off? Nearing 150,000 Euro in pay.
Just a assembly-guy....nearing 12 years? Around 54,000 in pay-out.
The thing you wonder about....this effort to downsize...if it increases the downward spiral of profitability.
If you follow the Nord Stream II pipeline saga....this past week....another chapter was written of the German-Russian natural gas pipe.
If you didn't know....there was a insurance policy bought over it....via a London company.
Well...they started out....to decline the pay-out.
From a London court this week....it was decided....Nord Stream AG will not receive the approximately 580 million Euro it is claiming from its insurers.
Judgement....the destruction of the pipelines was a consequence of the war . Such damages are excluded from insurance coverage.
Ending? Well....the Gazprom-controlled company will be left to bear the repair costs.
Next step? If the war ends....within 6 months, I'd expect Gazprom to get a deal....where the German gov't pays something (certainly not 580 million Euro) to restart the pipe.....and the unit to be turned on within 12 months. My guess is that a invented 'tax' will occur, and German consumers end up paying the repair cost (entirely).
1. Temp's radically flipped....last night was at a low of 13 C (55 F). Today a max of of 20 C (68 F). Around four storm fronts in the past 48 hours....none dumping that much on rain....so the drought continues. Forecast for next 10 days....mostly 30 C or less....with marginal rain.
2. Lithuania German-brigade....Germans still have trouble finding volunteers willing to deploy and be stationed there.
3. What is the ZDF-Danger Dan scandal about?
Danger Dan is a German rapper (real name Daniel Pongratz) from the band Antilopen Gang. If you read over his rap text....it's about 95-percent political, left-leaning, and anti-fascist music.
So ZDF (Channel 2, public TV)...has a show, Die Anstalt.....and they were willing to give Danger Dan a chance to show his new song called "Keine Angst" ("No Fear"). If you were wondering....the show is a satire/comedy type show.
While the show management were open to this....the top level of ZDF started to discuss the matter.
I suspect....this management group got the text....read through it....and got worried. The rap song is strongly against right-wing extremism (like the AfD) and fascism. Mixed in....it refers to resistance, mentions Antifa groups and real court cases involving violent fights with neo-Nazis, and oddly enough....encourages folks to take action without fear.
So the bosses told show people....you have to cancel the invitation.
Danger Dan got pretty peeved.
If you were asking me....on the level of public notice....among the top ten rap-stars of Germany? No....I might rank him in the top forty. But to be honest....there's probably 3,000 rap-singers in Germany presently.
Questions at this point? Well....were they correct in censoring Danger Dan, and exactly how many folks watch ZDF's Anstalt show?
4. General agreement now....stagflation in Russia....mostly due to fuel crisis.
5. New FOCUS column written by Jan Fleischhauer....entitled: "Heat deaths, drowning deaths: Greens warn of a new “mass death”.
Odd piece.....while the Greens hype-up heat-deaths....talking about the numbers in early Covid (5,000 Germans dead each week)....it's not the same thing.
6. New INSA national poll:
- AfD at 29-percent, with CDU dropping a point to 21-percent.
- SPD and Greens at 13-percent each. Linke at 10-percent. Everyone else....below 5-percent.
Jens Spahn has turned in his resignation as leader of the CDU/CSU parliamentary group. He's still in the CDU....just not holding a key position.
What Merz says? He's going to do a shuffle of a couple of folks....probably to announce by Monday afternoon.
Spahn's troubles over? Well....it would appear several factions of the conservatives CDU exist....with a fair number happy that Jens is out.
Gay conservatives seeing this in a negative way? I'd say that 50-percent will have a negative stance about the way this was handled.
Added to this mess....the CDU has kinda stepped around into various potholes for the past year.....they need some change of leadership to occur.
Somewhere....between Karlsruhe and Offenburg (SW Germany)...a Bahn train was progressing yesterday. A conductor was conducting a ticket-audit, and a drunk 'German' (some folks don't believe this element of the story)....had a discussion (the drunk German lacked a ticket).
The conductor? He alerts the two Bahn security guys onboard.
Bahn security? They are dressed in black....looking more like upscale 'bouncers' than anything else. They arrive, and then this turns into a curious fight.
Well...somehow...the door opened (moving train). We are left to wonder how (it's supposed to be impossible with the modern trains for this to happen. I can remember 1978....noting a door opening on a moving train.
Out goes the one security guy. Drunk is arrested at the stop-off point.
So they go and search for the security guy.....he's banged-up and in life-serious condition. Based on the description....he'll be in a hospital unit for a month or two......probably getting some kind of early retirement. Medal? Yeah....there will be some type of medal deal.
The drunk?
Well...most Germans hearing the story....have doubts over this being a ethnic German.
Charges? I can see two or three serious charges....he might be in prison for five to seven years.
This brings me to the obvious view....traveling via Bahn....is just not a 100-percent safe situation. Doors opening while in motion....drunk passengers on a assault agenda....etc.
You have to be vigilant.
