1. Bahn strike (railway system)? Well....it was supposed to end on Tuesday night. News last night said the strike will end Sunday evening (things will start back on operation at 2 AM Monday).
2. Germany has come to admit that some UN relief group in Gaza....was part of the 7 October business....forcing the Germans to react yesterday....halting all support for this UN organization. This was hyped-up last night on both the ARD/ZDF evening news pieces.
3. The husband of Sahra Wagenknecht (political boss of the new BWS Party)....(Lafontane)....made a speech, and noted that the party is absolutely 'left' on the political spectrum, and having nothing to do with conservatives. Some of the original packaging and hyping for the party......was that it wasn't going to be 'left' or 'right'.
I would strongly speculate that BWS in the fall 2025 federal election....doesn't go past 7-percent vote.
4. Jurgen Klopp...the legendary soccer coach for Liverpool....has announced he's in a year of 'rest' (leaving Liverpool) and returning to Wiesbaden to quietly reassess things.
On strategist skills and coaching talents....he's probably one of the three best soccer coaches in Europe today. Some think he's going to end up as the German national soccer team 'boss' in the summer of 2025.
Note: Klopp used to coach the Mainz team and is fairly legendary around Mainz/Wiesbaden.
5. About a year ago....all of the new property tax submissions (by property owners across Germany) were supposed to be done. This is to fill in the 'blanks' and give cities/states the final details for the property tax. All total? 36-million properties across Germany. Starting in 2025...the new tax scheme would be working.
Well....there's an issue....1-million owners failed to react.
What I'll say about this....it was in a general digital App, and it was crappy in design. My wife spent around three hours trying to input just 10 digital fields of information. It simply did not work by the design. After a week of talking to various people....she came to realize the instructions were incorrect. She went back to the App, and the effort took less than ten minutes.
My humble guess is that these one-million private citizens either are non-computer users, or just infuriated with the crappy way the App was designed.
What'll happen now? I would assume each district tax office will have to go out and chat with individual owners. Some might be invalids and require special help. Some might be out of the country.
5. This President Biden episode with the LNG (Liquid Natural Gas) about to screw Germany over?
Well....to lay this out. The primary source for natural gas in Germany was Russia, but when the war started....Germany took the position that they couldn't support Russia. This created a massive emergency two years ago.
The 'fix' developed was use of LNG ships to bring gas from two chief sources (Qatar and the US). They were the only ones seriously into LNG transport.
So Biden has come out in recent days to freeze the LNG ports....say it might be environmentally 'bad' to ship around LNG, and he wants more research.
Yeah, things are stack heavily against Germany with this delay and suggestion of being environmentally 'bad'.
The curious thing? LNG shipping technology has been around for over a decade. Tons of money has been spent on the development of ports and ships. So it's odd to stand up ten years into this and get all hyped-up.
The odds that Russia paid some lobby group to sell this 'evil' idea? Well....if Germany can't arrange more LNG shipping (only Qatar in the mix)....then they will be forced back to Russia. So I would be betting....this US decision has some Russian players involved.
6. For years, if you got a traffic ticket that involved 'points' (meaning a loss of your license for months....maybe even a year)....there was this little avenue where you got the ticket and could say someone was using your car (meaning they were responsible for the ticket).
In this effort, you'd pay some guy to admit this, and he took the point-punishment. Yeah, it's a pretty weird thing but it does occur.
Cost factor? Usually in the 300 to 400 Euro range for a 1-point ticket.
So the German authorizes are peeved that this service exists. They are now trying to figure out a way to halt the practice.
7. WELT piece this Sunday worth reading. Title: 'the Thin-Skinned and Exhausted Society'.....by Celine Lauer. Worth a read if you can find the paper.
Jest? Well....in the minds of a number of Germans....the Covid era has never ended. So these people are still in crisis mood.
I would agree with this. Proper distancing....the 1-meter rule? I still observe it. If you asked me about masks...I don't wear them ever, but I still have masks in the car, and keep one in my jacket.
What Lauer suggests is that society is now more distrustful than what we were before Covid. I might agree.
8. Focus (the news magazine) published a curious report over ARD/ZDF (public TV) retirement pensions for employees. So what they get at....the whole budget process is out of control and will be a massive problem to cover in the future.
A fair number of folks want public TV to enter a reform period, and downsize. This is probably going to be the 'hammer' to arrange for this 'fix'.
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