On The Luca App

 Back in the spring of 2021....a Covid App was developed and delivered to the public, with the blessing of the German government. 

The name of it?  Luca.

It was basically a tracking app.  If you entered a cafe, pub, or restaurant, you 'signed in' and  identified the time/place, with a public data set.

So to satisfy everyone....it was noted as something that the police would never use.  This was a promise by the federal government.

Well....this week, it came out in Mainz that the police used Luca....to find who was near a particular guy who fell on the street after leaving a restaurant (apparently dying there).  They wanted more info on how he fell.  

Successful?  The cops got a list of 21 people and interviewed them.

This violating the general rule of Luca?  Yeah.

The prosecutor of Mainz has apologized for the behavior and says it won't happen again. The odds of this?  Well.....you don't know.  

How The French Presidential Election Works?

 So there is a primary held between the dozen-odd parties on 10 April 2022.  Already before this point....each party has done their 'picking' and gotten to the final candidate.  

The national election on the 10th will then be a race to see if anyone can clear 50-percent (none will) and so the top two candidates are then 'herded' to the 22nd of April.....for a final election.

How it looks presently?  Macron, nationally, is polling around 25-to-26 percent.  You have two other folks polling around 16-percent each, then you drop down to one person near 13-percent.  The rest are in the 1-to-9 percent point.  

Odds here?  Macron will be one of the final two.  So the question for the public on the 22nd.....if your guy isn't there....are you willing to vote for the alternate to Macron, or vote for Macron?

Last time, this was a final race between Macron, and Marine Le Pen (the evil 'Trump-like' gal from the right-wing).  This time?  Le Pen is one of the two sixteen-percent people.....with the other being Valérie Pécresse.

Pécresse leans right, and I'd describe her as being a DeSantis-lite type political figure.  She is fairly educated (speaks English, Russian, Japanese).  

Pécresse is talking about dismissing 150,000 federal employees in the French system, and thinks some rule changes should occur to get people going back to work (off Welfare).  She has said the 35-hour work-week has to end.  But I would add....she does hype up some environmental measures.  

If Pécresse can edge out Le Pen, I think a majority of French would likely vote for her....instead of Macron.  

Another banker, replacing a banker?  Well....that is the odd feature of Macron, and Pécresse.  

New Covid Ban Rules?

 Draft proposal up for today and in rumors.

1.  2G-plus for resturant eating being discussed (meaning you are vaxed-up/recovered AND you got tested in the past 24 hours), if you fall into a hot-zone.  It adds another layer of hassle....if you wanted to eat out, you'd have to be tested (free).  Cutting into customers?  I'd suggest that about a third of the people who were still openly eating out at this point....might not be that thrilled to take an extra 30 minutes out of their day to test.

2.  FFP-2 masks being mandated for grocery/regular stores, and on trains/buses.  

Up until this point, they accepted the FFP-2 and the surgical/medical masks.  To note the difference between the two.....the surgical masks are cheaper (30-percent less) and allow some airflow.  The FFP-2?  It reminds me of the old chem-warfare masks of the military days, and restricts air flow a good bit.  In a one-hour grocery trip?  I'd be breathing around 50-percent carbon dioxide and be fairly weak-headed.  

So I'm not pro-FFP-2 and I suspect they will see more cases of people fainting in stores while wearing the mask.  

How many Germany wore them before this discussion?  I'd say it was 50-50 between FFP-2 and surgical masks.  

3.  The quarantine period is going to be suggested to be shortened (7 days).  But you'd have to PCR test to prove you were 'over' it.  Can people be well over the 7th day?  I'd say yes, but if you asked if I'd be full-strength yet?  NO.  I'd say the vast majority of people won't be full power for at least 15 days from the start-up.

By this afternoon, we will know the chatter from the state governments and how far this discussion went. 

Sci-Fi Chatter

 Last night, the German version of 'Who Wants To Be a Millionaire' ran on TV.  The key question that I noticed?  They asked what science fiction series features the Demogorgon creature?

Well.....I knew the answer.

But you could see this awful pain on the young German lady.

The four choices of the show: Lost, Stranger Things, Game of Thrones, and some other series.  The answer?  Stranger Things.

They must have seven minutes on this question.  She had no idea and admitted that she had never watched any of the four science fiction series.  

This is one key aspect of German society today.  If you listed twenty-odd science fiction series popular in the US over the past forty years....more than half of German society would tell you they've never watched a single one.  Even going back to Star Trek (Captain Kirk)....there just aren't that many who view this kind of stuff.

The Germans who do get into Game of Thrones, Flash, Arrow, Doctor Who, Stargate, Loki, Lost in Space, etc?  They are mostly German kids between ages 12 and 20.  

An aversion to sci-fi?  I would say that more than half of German society is pretty much 'grounded' and just not into sci-fi.  They end up asking how the plane crashed on the island in Lost....or they ask who is Thor and how is he really related to Loki, or they ask about these teenage kids in Stranger Things and why they get into so much trouble?  

So inventing questions for some quiz show?  You are just tempting fate.  In this case with the young gal.....she took the 50-50 joker and just plain guessed on Stranger Things in the end.  

Corona-Frust?

 There's a term that you hear at least five or six times a week now in Germany.....Corona-Frust or translated....Corona-Frustration.

A description?  I would say....after almost two years now of Covid....the mental side of most Germans (probably over three-quarters) is pushed to the limits.  People will talk about mental exhaustion....stress over protecting themselves....worry over a cold-like feeling turning into Covid...dread over riding a bus or train....fear over riding with just one other person in a elevator....and continual confusion over ban rule changes (week by week, the rules change).

Some Germans will gather at work or around friends....to chat on a continual basis about Covid....while others don't want a single word spoken in such a group.  The nightly news at 8:00 PM?  On some evenings....at least seven minutes of the fifteen surround Covid events/worries.  It gets even worse at the 9:45 PM 'show' on ZDF (Channel Two) or ARD (Channel One).

I noticed last night off ARD that they were pushing the idea of mental resilience.  That you need to have a 'bounce-back' mentality and fight off the depression side of Covid.  That might have worked back at the 12th month of the episode....but we are now at month twenty-two.

How many people (out of 83-million) are at some breaking point or require actual mental help?  It's hard to figure this number.  Suicides are not up....if you were trying to get some associated number to fit  into this.  Germans used to use summer vacation to re-charge their mental batteries, and relieve life's stress issues.  But you can't really count on vacations now because of all the issues involved in traveling or getting somewhere.  

If 2022 goes at the same pace?  That's a question worth asking. 

My humble guess is that around forty to fifty percent of Germans have started to ask stupid questions, routinely cast disbelief over numbers given by the government and journalists, and have heartburn over the idea of shutdowns/curfews.  Most Germans have done the vaxed-up business (probably near 85-percent presently).  Booster-wise?  It's going up to around 50-percent.  

This topic of frustration likely to get more attention?  I would suggest a national trend where people start meeting in groups and discussing out their negativity.  It won't be a pleasant experience.  

Linke Party Story

 After the election results of September 2021 were laid out....one of the key things noted was that the Linke Party (the far left political group of Germany) is probably in serious trouble....enough that they might not survive the 2025 election.

Last night, ARD nightly news (public TV, Channel One)....had a piece of discussion over this.

The chatter?  More or less....a rebranding of the party.

The word 're-invent' came up. 

Their selling point?  They aren't the SPD or Green Party, and that's really the key element.  

The fact that their political stance only sells in the five eastern states of Germany?  Yeah, that fact keeps coming up.  In the other eleven German states....in a typical state election, the Linke folks are lucky if they can get five to seven percent of regional votes, and that's on a rare basis.

The fact that the SPD and Greens 'sell' around three-quarters of the Linke 'products' now?  Yeah.....that doesn't help much.

Over the past decade, one of the oddball things pushed by the Linke folks was the idea of a free bus/railway ticket for all students/workers.  Who would pay for the ticket in the end?  Well...via higher taxes....everyone else.  That wasn't laid out in the details but any idiot could ask the question and realize the tax impact on the general public. 

Are we looking at the end of the Linke Party?  My suggestion is that they have to evolve into something else entirely different, and capture more interest in western states of Germany.  If they fail at this....I think the 2025 national election will be the last time that they carry any representation in the Bundestag, and they become just another regional minor political party.

A Funny Story Over Covid Testing

 This got reported today out of Berlin....via RBB (public TV from the city).

So, just for reference, within Berlin....there are now 830 test centers.  

During the holiday period....this family planned a number of activities....one of which....was a ice skating visit.  Three kids were in the situation.

Since there's no in-school Covid testing going on....mom decided to go on-line and get each of the three scheduled for the test....in order to easily enter the ice skating rink.  Three separate appointments....same test center.

Something came up....so the ice skating deal was cancelled out of the family plans.  They didn't cancel the appointments....they just let them lapse.  Note....the kids DIDN'T go to the tests.

About an hour or two after the scheduled tests (which the kids DID NOT attend).....results of negative are emailed to mom, dad, and each kid.  Just one single kid's test?  No....all three came back negative....even though they never were tested.

So this has dragged up the topic of crappy management and lack of reliability.  

How many of the 830 test centers in Berlin are legit and functioning correctly?  Unknown. 

If you eyeballed the particular test center in this situation and asked how many people have failed to show but got a negative test result email?  There's no way to guess on this....it might be ten....a hundred....or a thousand.  

About That Bonus Chatter

 I noted off several news sites in Germany.....more chatter about this billion Euro 'bonus' for nurses.

So the Health Ministry came out yesterday said the bonus money would only go to primary care workers who were front-line people in taking care of Covid folks.  Somehow, there would be some pattern set up and each nurse 'measured' in the how many days, how often and how much sacrifice they put in.

This turning into a five-star mess?  

Each single hospital would have to go and review manpower listings, man-hours in the quarantine wards, and then invent some type of 'sacrifice-index'.  

If you were the janitor in the quarantine ward of some hospital?  It's not clear if they would be counted or not.  

I could see some scenario where three HR people are working full-time for six weeks....assembling the data for just one single hospital, and coming up with x-number to report to the government on their nurses.  

The nurses who did volunteer to fill in for a friend in the quarantine ward for a month?  They may not 'count' under this crazy method.  

Will the 'bonus' be taxable?  Well....that's not clear.  If you told me that I was getting 3k Euro in bonus money but taxes would occur, and it's only 1,800 Euro in the end....I'd be happy but just marginally happy.