1. For the record, if you counted all residents of Germany....those without a migrant background....ONLY make up around 71-percent of the 84-million in population.
Yes, 59.3-million German-only residents.
Just the medical system alone....if you went to a massive deportation concept...would collapse overnight because of a lack of nursing/support staff.
If you went to bus-drivers, bar personnel, industry....it's a mess if you really went to some far view of deportation.
2. In the past couple of days....the Frankfurt train station finally completed their massive surveillance camera system. From planning stages to today....six years spent because of delays and legal challenges.
Around the station....cops generally report an average of 10,000 crimes a year. So there is a massive amount of belief that the camera system will lessen the number.
3. Interesting piece written by Julie Ruhs for Focus. Topic? “Left-green infested - I experience first hand how people think about ARD and ZDF."
Ruhs is an employee of the public TV system, and generally surprised at the number of Germans who are skeptical of the news presented.
I'll just say that the level today in Germany of people being skeptical....is probably at a all-time level. I would suggest more than half the population....when presented some story or narrative....have some initial doubt about the validity or reliability of the story. This has been gradually building up.
4. Interview given by CDU Party 'boss' (Merz).....saying that the time of just plain ignoring the AfD Party (far-right).....has come to pass, and it's wrong to ignore them at this point.
Whether this chatter matters or not....unknown. If he goes to an attack format....the topic of deportations will come up and he can't easily produce evidence that the CDU can do much to effect change.
5. I read a business piece over the weekend....concerning E-Bikes. Apparently, from the Covid-era....huge increase in E-Bike interest popped up. Shops have finally peaked.....warehouses are now overloaded, and the purchasing price of a typical E-Bike is dropping (more than 10-percent....some suggest). I've seen some examples of what was a 1,200 Euro bike (on the low-end) now priced in the 750-to-800 Euro range.
6. Lot of snow/ice predictions for today. Mostly for southern half of the country. In the Pfalz, Bavaria and Baden-Wurttemberg regions....probably two feet of snow predicted. Massive arctic front predicted as it ends....at least 4 days of freezing weather.
7. Just odd....around 24 hours after Baden-Wurttemberg (the southern state of Germany) gave a warning not to use much electricity off the grid for Monday morning for a couple of hours....now comes on Tuesday a new 'warning'.
Because of extreme conditions expected from Wed to Sun....they are now giving 'black-out' tips.
I'd say on the reassuring 'index' (1-to-10).....I'd be feeling this is a '3' at best.
For those folks who have a heat-pump heating the house and using a fair amount of power for it to warm things? This is bunch of crap on black-out advice.
8. For anyone who has watched the 8 PM ARD news show “Tagesschau”.....an update today came up.
One of the more popular news folks from the show....Judith Rakers...has given notice to quit the show (end of January.
In her late 40s....she indicated that she's going onto some type of private/commercial TV production project.
Curious....she's been on the 8 AM show at least once or twice a week, for almost 18 years.
9. Some report in the Tuesday news...indicating that across Germany....around 910,000 social-support or welfare housing units/apartments are 'missing'. If you go back to prior to 1990.....a lot of cities had such units, and turmoil was arising because the income being brought into the system....wasn't adequate to update or renovate the massive structure across Germany.
So everyone from the local level to the federal level agreed....it'd be best to let the units go from city-run hands....to a commercial ownership, and somehow....they'd renovate things. That....more or less...failed.
2 comments:
The major parties are worried about the AfD Party (far-right). But they are not worried about the far-left? Is the AfD draining their base of support?
From 1949 to early-1990s...the CDU/CSU and SPD dynamic in elections guaranteed that they together...could take 70-percent or more in a typical national election. 2017, the dynamic could take only around 52-percent of the vote...combined. In 2021...it just barely bumped below 50-percent.
You can blame various issues (more media/internet attention, Covid, cost-of-living, tax issues, comedians, refugees, Ukraine-Russia war, etc)...but the right-of-center and left-of-center structure is failing.
The two groups are losing representation in the Bundestag (not just the AfD meddling in the numbers business). Curiously, public focus dropped serious over the past five years with the Linke Party (far-left). The theme and message that the left-leaners tried to sell....isn't really that popular anymore.
So I'd say four things/brands are dividing issues up now for the political landscape: (1) cost-of-living issues, (2) perception that deportation has failed miserably, (3) environmentalism is either feared to an extreme or joked-about to extreme, and (4) current solutions by the SPD/ampel government seem to be theatrics more than anything else.
On a odd note, a committee of citizens advising the coalition gov't has said too much meat is being consumed....so to remedy this...they want a inflated tax-like structure attached to meat purchases. The coalition will likely adopt the idea, and invent a fee/tax....only to find a majority of people squarely against the idea (thus draining more support).
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