Ten Q-and-A

 1.  Is there a employee shortage in Germany, at present?

Well....if you walk around....there's help-wanted signs everywhere (on buses/trains, in cafes/pubs/bars, at the front door of grocery stores and clothing shops).  Part-time.....full-time....it doesn't matter.

Affecting business hours?  I would suggest that most pubs and bars have ten to fifteen lesser hours open each week because of the shortage.

2.  What's this 'Compact' magazine ban in Germany about?

Started about 14 years ago....it was designed on right-wing topics.  As of this morning, the Interior Minister put the magazine on the banned list.  If you stock or sell it....you'd be in trouble.  

As for how many Germans were reading it?  Unknown....they never published a number on issues, and even the Interior Minister can't say with any factual evidence that it was broadly read. 

The belief  behind the ban?  Mostly that if you don't read it....you won't get right-wingish.   

The fall  2025 federal election figuring into this ban?  One might imagine that a strategy does exist....if you ban it....that would  lessen votes for the AfD Party.

My personal view?  It'd help if you just banned all news-related magazines, leaving just comics, artsy literature and sports-magazines existing....getting people dull-witted and less focused on any realities of life.  ('Shit happens mentality') 

3.  What was this commentary piece in WELT from Michael Wolffsohn on 'dumbing down Germans' all about?

Basically,  it's a piece where he discusses the university output (maybe lack  of output) and the public news broadcasting folks (ZDF/ARD) trending toward a one-sided argument/discussion on various topics.

About a decade ago, I sat and watched a public TV forum show (live) where there was a moderator and five guests.  Whatever the topic was.....the moderator and four guests were there to 'sell'  one side, and the one guest was left to marginal present the other side.  About 30 minutes into the discussion....in my mind...I muted the rest of the discussion (letting my wife consume it alone).  Whether by design or accident....it was a loser-of-a-presentation and a effort to dumb-down the viewer.

Wolffsohn has a point, but I don't think ARD  or ZDF will be inviting him to guest on any of their forums.

4.   Did DDR/East Germany ever psychologically fully recover form Soviet occupation?

You can ask this question around 100 Germans and get 100 variations of the answer.

I suspect if you ask older East Germans (over the age of sixty)....most will say there are various things that they are continually skeptical about.....more so, than a West German would  admit. 

If you asked if they are pro-Putin or pro-Russia today (in eastern sections)?  They will all say no.....but they don't see any logic in continuing support for the Ukraine from the German gov't.  

5. What's this FTI bankruptcy all about?

FTI as a major vacation/travel package company.....they failed, and if you had trips planned for this summer....you might get some type of refund (don't go expecting a 100-percent pay-back).  The chief problem?  They are sorting this out, and the refunds won't occur until late summer....meaning your vacation ideas are CRAP at this point.

Affected?  250,000 is the suggested number.

Refunds on just flights arranged or rental cars book (by themselves)?  Pretty much zero chance you will get that money back.

6.  Any truth to the beer truck accident in Erfurt?

Well....what the cops say this AM...26,000 liters are beer are spilled.  Not a national crisis, but it'll be felt.

7.  New trend in mourning  in Germany?

Well....it's just an odd development of commerce.  Some  guy figured out that if you had a coffee 'wagon' at cemeteries and offered up a chance to talk 'grief'.....customer sessions would start up.

Started in Mainz, and I suspect it'll take off and be a national trend within a year or two.

8.  Is there anything really left of the Linke Party?

Some journalists are trying to suggest a 'way-out' is still possible.  Maybe in eastern urbanized cities of Germany....they might still be able to pull 5 to 8 percent in voting. 

After 2025's federal election....at the national level....I think they will be gone.

9.  Are Germans now worried about location-data on themselves being available to the bad-guys?

Well....yeah, if you have some significance in life....like a gov't official, banker, German Army officer....they are now concerned about tracking data off their cellphone.  

The belief is (whether true or not)....various governments are paying independent collectors of such data.

What I suspect  will happen....any week now, the German gov't will order cellphone companies to alter the phones in some way....to have zero tracking.  Personally, it'd be a lot easier if you just turned your phone OFF for 8 hours out of the day.

10.  Explaining J D Vance (Trump's VP) to a German?

First, you'd start out and explain 'trailer-trash' and what it means.  My description?  You live in a 1-star lifestyle....with crazy relatives...in a open-drug atmosphere, and you don't have high expectations in life.  If you aren't arrested for something by age 30, you've achieved something special.  

Without any status in life after high school....he went to the Marines and did an enlistment....wrapping that up and spending time (with Marine educational funds) at the University of Ohio, and later at Yale law school.

Entire opposite history to Bush II?  Yeah....there's no special favors attached  to Vance. 

Worse that you can say about him?  He doesn't spend money on suits, and he looks like he only shops in a JC Pennys.  On wit and knowledge?  Out of the whole Senate....there might only be three folks more mentally set for the job.