8 Jan 2026: Germany: 7 Things.

 1.  Curious 'threat' yesterday AM...the A44 has been closed at the Jackerath interchange (far west area of Germany). A blade of a brand-new wind turbine... danger of being blown onto the roadway by the strong wind. 

2.  Mid-morning Wed....Berlin power grid back up to 100-percent power. Around an hour later....the police announce they will have food to hand out at a dozen locations toward late afternoon....for public consumption.

3. Thursday weather outlet....freezing rain and heavy snow for various areas of Germany.

4. Kinda funny....the Bundeswehr (German Army) finally arrived Wed AM...right as the grid in Berlin was back-up to full power....so the soup kitchen operation started five hours later.

5.  Another grid threat.  Unknown individuals have apparently attempted to sabotage the power supply in the state of NRW. Substation in Erkrath, an incendiary device was discovered that had not been ignited. A claim of responsibility from the left-wing group "Kommando Angry Birds" was left.  

6.  German immigration office in trouble.....employees at the Bielefeld immigration office are being  investigated for accepting bribes for indefinite residence permits (no amount suggested, but I would imagine it's in the range of 1k Euro). Fifteen cases being reviewed. 

7.  German Bahn (rail) on a new strike schedule.....spring-period...wanting 8-percent more pay.

Assessing The Berlin Grid Outage

 I'll offer four observations:

First, when 'crap' happens...generally, who you do not want in charge of emergency chaos for your problem...is a politician.  You want a emergency service 'professional' or some military guy with a sense of priorities.

In the Berlin case....neither the CDU or SPD politicians did a job worth bragging about.

I suspect both parties lost voters in the next election because of this.

Second, the dimwit-group responsible for the destruction of the powerlines....needs to locked away for the remainder of their lives.   They are a threat to society.

Third, if I were Putin's crew and needing some type of action against Germany....this event gave me a thousand ideas about inflicting damage on German society.  Frankly, I'd be worrying about how this went.

Finally, you need to think about the worst event that could happen to your house, and have a plan 'B' idea about actions to take. 

Mail-In Voting In Germany?

Since 1957.....yes, you can mail-in vote in Germany.  The term is Briefwahl.

You can only vote in the district/town....that you are registered in. 

Reason?  No particular reason is required.  

You simply need to apply for a polling card (Wahlschein) from your local election office, typically by mail, online, or in person, up to a week before the election. 

Once approved, you'll receive your ballot by mail, which you fill out and return via post or drop off at designated locations. This option is particularly common for voters abroad, those with disabilities, medical issues or anyone preferring not to vote in person on election day. 

Corruption factor?  In the years that I've observed elections....no one has ever brought up a legit issue.  

Five Things To Consider When Viewing 'News'

 1.  Not only should you worry about disinformation, and misinformation....you should worry about zeroinformation (where you have four sources for news, and none of them report x-event....yet you go over to a 5th (rarely used news source) to discover they are reporting x-event.

2.  Sometimes....experts are not experts, but merely 'talking-dogs'.  Meaning....they are more of a propagandist than a expert.

3.  When the news guy spends 12 minutes to explain a 1 minute story....it's probably way over your head anyway.

4.   When a story involves science....it's probably over the understanding-level of 90-percent of listeners.

5. Don't go anticipating that tonight's news will make you happy.  Maybe you should just limit yourself to news that effects 50 km within your home.

The 70-Euro 'Deal'

 Grid repairs continue on in Berlin, and yesterday (Tuesday)...the city council finally agreed to provide residents of the affected areas....70 Euro per day.....for a hotel situation.

Driving force?  Well...they already paid to have refugees moved into alternate quarters, and put themselves into a awkward position by denying residents the deal.

Would 70 Euro cover a hotel room?  My view....this is the off-season....if you browsed carefully.....looking for a two-to-three star room....just outside of Berlin...yes, you could get a decent room for 70 Euro per night.

To be honest, you could get a package flight/hotel deal to Turkey at present....full week with meals included....for 2 people....659 Euro....3-star hotel.  I told the wife (German in nature)....that's my plan-B (no argument, she agreed).

The fact that the city council argued about this for 3 days?  Yeah, they lost some political points. 

7 Jan 2026: Germany: 7 Things

 1.  City-state of Brandenburg had a coalition collapse (SPD-BSW)....their finance  minister quit the BSW party.  Some folks felt new election was now required.  SPD simply went to a new partner.....CDU.  

If the election had occurred?  Well....AfD is suggested to lead all other parties....around 35-percent.

2.  Focus piece this AM....journalists have talked to left-wing students in Berlin area, who say whoever did the grid attack is way past their beliefs.  Their suggestions?  It  leads back toward Russia.  So far though....no evidence.

3.  Heat-pump threat in Berlin?  So....experts have said now...if you have a heat-pump in the grid-affected area, with it off for several days....the coils could freeze.  In this scenario...as a minimum, it could require the services of a technician to resolve and figure a couple thousand Euro for service.  Worst case....the coils fail....releasing the gas.  Yeah, environmental hazard, and tons of money to fix/resolve.

4.  Last week....I talked about that break-in of a Gelsenkirchen  bank vault.

Well....police came up yesterday.....searching the offices of the robbed savings bank in Gelsenkirchen.  Reason?  The bank has refused to release certain data. This leads the police to think....insider was helping the robbers.

I paused over this....there's a remote possibility that some employee (or two) was running a fraud scheme totally unrelated to the robbery. Wouldn't shock me if the bank box list of names....has some aliases (fake people).

5.  Greenland and Denmark have requested to meet with Secretary of State Rubio.  No response....yet.  

6.  Rejected asylum guy....traveling by train from Belgium back to Germany....stopped again by the police. The 37-year-old Lebanese guy is apparently registered with the police already.....under nearly 30 different names.

7.  Aachen police report released to the public.  They had eleven open manhunt cases....solved.  One 21-year old Moroccan guy was detained and ID'ed with seven identities....for the 11 open cases.  Cop who broke this case....deserves some award/medal.  

Just Interesting To Watch

 Today....three key things unfolded in Berlin....with the grid issue mixed into the chaos.

First, the mayor (Wegner, CDU)....finally put out (4th day) a precise 'we-got-this-done-to-this-point' message.  In terms of communicating and laying out accomplishments....up to this point, I'd give the guy a '5' (1-to-10). 

Second, Franziska Giffey....head of the SPD 2026 election efforts....put out her first election theme 'message', and it hits Wegner in a blunt way.  The SPD and CDU folks run a coalition city council, and up to this point....they were 'friendly'.  

Third, someone with a electrical background....pointed out that various parts of the Berlin grid...is working off technology based on 1950s/1960s/1970s.  I noted in the commentary....the general rule of replacement is a 40-to-60 year cycle....so they are about 20-to-30 years 'behind'.  Some commented about this being a DDR-era issue, but I'd point out the our 'quarters' in the mess....were all part of West-Berlin.

I suspect a big discussion will start up in the spring....Germany-wide....is the grid modern-and-updated, with the politicians admitting there are issues.

It's interesting to note....it's 36,000 km of cable stretched across Berlin....from the three levels/degrees of the grid.

One of the news folks pointed out....the massive manpower picture.  From the grid-repair guys....probably in the 300-to-400 range....working around the clock.   Police?   There's the regular city-police....but state and fed police (400 in number) have been brought in.  Then there's the Bundeswehr....with probably 200 to 300 (logistics,  soup-kitchens, etc).

But this has brought up the prep-topic.  Back in the Merkel days (ten years ago)....the Merkel folks wanted Germans to prepare for such an emergency....to have at least 7 days of food and 'extras'.  

Shortly after that theme  started....ZDF (public TV, Channel 2) got critical over the idea....suggesting this was an American dimwit-thing....'don't-be-a-prepper' message/attitude.  

I suspect a lot of Germans are viewing how badly this went, and a renewal of the prepper business will start up.   

Finally, for my negative view of E-cars....I was proven right....the grid is not 100-percent safe to go and assume I can always charge my car.  

How The Berlin-City Election Looks (20 Sep 2026)

 Last poll  done by INSA.....wrapped up at end of Oct 2025:

CDU would win with 23-percent of the vote....SPD in second place with 16-percent.

Greens with 14-percent, Linke with 17-percent, and AfD with 15-percent.

With the grid chaos affect?  I might suggest that in the SW quarters (four of them)....probably half of all SPD, Green and CDU voters are frustrated and prepared to 'jump'.

I'm not saying AfD will collect those votes....but some alternate party has a opportunity.

From the remaining unaffected quarters?  I might go and suggest one out of four voters are shaking their heads over leadership demonstrated during the crisis period.