That’s Not Fair

June 14, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Humor, Hurt Feelings Tags: Armies, Army, Automobiles, Defense, European Tank Challenge, German, Germans, Germany, M1 Abrams, Tanks 1 Comment

Why couldn’t German tanks take part in the competition?

Oh, I forgot. They’re all broken.

The idea of green U.S. Army M1 Abrams tanks with big white stars on their sides, huge American flags flying on top, and art on the hull depicting a turtle wearing a World War II-era tanker uniform, running over a pile of cars sounds like something straight out of a 1980s arcade game. But its actually a real scene from the annual Strong Europe Tank Challenge at the service’s 7th Army Training Command’s Grafenwoehr Training Area in Germany.

A Little Bit Of Ricin Isn’t Going To Hurt Anybody

June 13, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habeas Corpus, Habitudes, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: Angela Merkel, Asylum Seekers, Cologne, German, Germans, Germany, Migrants, Refugees, Ricin, Terrorism, Terrorists Leave a comment

Not after an even smaller bit of ricin already killed everybody off first.

The next Syrian refugee (this time a Tunisian Syrian refugee from Tunisia) has been caught misbehaving again. German police are questioning the 29-year-old after having stormed his apartment in Cologne and finding this interesting substance, should these reports be of substance.

Daily newspaper Express and local daily Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger reported that police had found ricin, a substance that can be highly toxic in small amounts. Authorities have not confirmed the reports…

Elite SEK police commandos and specialized chemical units from the police and fire departments were at the scene of the 18-story apartment block in Cologne’s northern Chorweiler district late on Tuesday. A mobile laboratory was set up in the entrance area of the apartment to analyze any dangerous substance.

German public broadcaster, WDR, quoted the attorney general as saying that there were indications that the person arrested may have planned an attack with the substances.

EXPRESS und „Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger“ erfuhren aus Ermittlerkreisen, um was für eine Substanz es sich handeln soll, die bei dem SEK-Großeinsatz am Dienstagabend in der Wohnung des Tatverdächtigen aufgefunden wurde: Rizin ist der drittgiftigste Stoff der Welt – 25.000-mal tödlicher als Strychnin.

PS: Just in case you were wondering (see yesterday’s post), North Korea won!

German State TV Has Questions

June 12, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Bias, Donald Trump, German, Germans, Germany, GEZ, Kim Jong Un, Media, North Korea, Singapore, State TV, Tagesschau 2 Comments

When it comes to today’s Trump-Kim event. And the answers are already written between the lines – by the fact that these particular questions were even asked in the first place.

Was the Trump-Kim meeting successful?

Is the closing statement really such a breakthrough?

Who benefits from the agreement?

Why wasn’t denuclearization made contractual?

Are there also losers?

Damn right there are losers. Anybody who voluntarily watches German state TV, for instance.

“Großartig“ und “historisch”. Doch die kamen vor allem vom US-Präsidenten selbst. Ein wichtiges Ziel des Gipfels wurde nicht konkret vereinbart.

German Of The Day: Geschröpft

June 11, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Defense, Donald Trump, GDP, German, Germans, Germany, Languge, NATO, Spending, Tariffs, Trade Leave a comment

That means fleeced. Or clobbered, if you prefer.

As in… We protect Europe (which is good) at great financial loss, and then get unfairly clobbered on trade.

„Deutschland zahlt ein Prozent des Bruttoinlandsproduktes (langsam) in Richtung Nato, während wir vier Prozent von einer weit größeren Bruttoinlandsprodukt zahlen. Glaubt irgendjemand, dass das Sinn macht?“

German Of The Day: Weltfremd

June 8, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habeas Corpus, Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: AfD, Asylum Seekers, Borders, German, Germans, Germany, Language, Linke, Migrants, Open Borders, Refugees, The Left Party 1 Comment

That means “not of this world,” as in alien to it, unrealistic, naively innocent, quixotic.

And now we’re making progress, folks. How progressive indeed. Now, even the leftest of the leftist left in Germany are announcing that committing to open borders is about as weltfremd as it gets.

The Left party’s Rosa Luxumburg clone herself, Sahra Wagenknecht, fighting to dominate those opponents within the party who are for open borders, has just taken a stance that anybody over at the right populist AfD would openly support: “It’s weltfremd to think that anyone can come to Germany and have a claim to the social benefits here.”

Wagenknecht sagte, es sei „weltfremd“, dass jeder nach Deutschland kommen und Anspruch auf die hier üblichen Sozialleistungen haben könne.

Remember This Guy?

June 5, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Helplessness, Hideology, Hostility, Humor, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Berlin, Bourgeois Socialism, Breitbart, Diplomacy, Donald Trump, German, Germans, Germany, Martin Schulz, Richard Grenell, Social Democracy, Social Democrats, SPD 2 Comments

Martin Schmidt? Or was it Meier? Müller? … Schlitz?

Anyway, he’s back again or something. For a few seconds. Now that his fifteen minutes are up, I mean.

He and his comrades over at the SPD are mad as hell at US-Amerika‘s new Ambassador, Richard Grenell, because of, well, “perceived breaches of diplomatic etiquette” (how diplomatic).

He said in a recent Breitbart interview, for instance (Breitbart is a German news service, Breitbart meaning “wide beard” in our language), that he wanted to empower conservative forces throughout Europe. I know, right? And then he did this and then he said that and yada, yada, yada and now everyone on the left (and that’s a whole lot over here) is completely outraged because, well, it’s a slow news day/week/month so it’s time to call for somebody to fire his red, white and blue ass. If it wasn’t for outrage they wouldn’t have no rage at all.

“I think there is a groundswell of conservative policies that are taking hold because of the failed policies of the left.”

“Ich hoffe, dass der Kurz-Besuch zu einem Kurz-Aufenthalt von Herrn Grenell in seiner Funktion als Botschafter in Deutschland führt.”

German Of The Day: Vogelschiss

June 4, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: AfD, Alexander Gauland, Bird Shit, German, Germans, Germany, Language, Nazi Germany, Political Parties Leave a comment

That means bird shit. You know, like “Hitler and the National Socialists are just bird shit in 1,000 years of successful German history” kind of bird shit?

Personally, I think that was quite a lot of bird shit, 1,000 years or not, but maybe that’s just me.

The German government condemned on Monday an apparent attempt by the co-leader of the anti-immigrant AfD party to play down the significance of the Nazis in Germany’s history, and it stressed the unique nature of the Holocaust.

On Sunday politicians rebuked Alexander Gauland, one of the leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD), after he told a party gathering: “Hitler and the National Socialists are just bird shit in 1,000 years of successful German history.”

“For me, ‘bird shit’ is and remains the lowest piece of filth – animal excrement that I compared National Socialism with.”

Times Change

June 3, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: Angela Merkel, Asylum Seekers, Berlin, Big Government, German, Germans, Germany, Government Intervention, Government Waste, Migrants, Refugees, Syrian Refugees, Welfare, Welfare State Leave a comment

Not. Not when it comes to government creating problems by having good intentions and then creating even greater problems by trying to solve the self-inflicted problems it just created. On and on this process goes. Politician generation to generation. Just like the families who now live around Berlin’s Sonnenallee in Neukölln (Little Beirut) will experience, being welfare recipients for many generations to come – instead of working for a living like the Arab refugees who came before them, albeit “in an orderly manner.”

Of the nearly 695,000 migrants who applied for asylum in Germany in 2016, more than 62 percent received refugee status or humanitarian protection, which enabled them to work and receive welfare benefits, according to data from the Federal Office for Migration and Refugees (the same scandal-ridden authority we’ve been reading about these days). Among applicants from Syria, the figure was higher, at around 97 percent.

In contrast, 10 years earlier less than seven percent of asylum applicants in Germany received refugee status. A 2016 study by Bielefeld University found more than half of established migrants in Germany believe the newcomers should settle for less.

“When I saw what they received, I wished I was a refugee.”

Poland Gets It

May 30, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Defense, Defense Spending, German, Germans, Germany, Military, NATO, Poland, Russia Leave a comment

The U.S. doesn’t stand to lose anything by accepting Poland’s generous proposal and gradually relocating troops there from Germany. A move of this kind would be consistent with stated U.S. goals, such as deterring Russia. It would also allow the U.S. to support an ally eager for closer military ties.

It might also force Germany to give more thought to its position. Would it feel unprotected with a smaller U.S. presence? Would it, perhaps, be motivated to enhance its own defense? Or would it still be secure in its apparent conviction that no one is interested in attacking it?

The U.S. should offer protection to the countries that want it most, and reduce its involvement with nations that benefited in the mid-20th century. The American military presence should be aligned with its allies’ sense of being threatened. This anxiety gets stronger the closer a country is to Russia’s borders. Ignoring that makes little military or political sense.

Hard As Jello-O

May 28, 2018 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Helplessness, Hideology, Hypocrisy Tags: German, Germans, Germany, Heiko Maas, Russia, SPD Leave a comment

This guy is. When it comes to Germany’s dealings with Russia. He’s making Vlad Putin shake in his boots as we speak or something.

And that’s why his comrades over at the SPD are expressing their irritation over Foreign Minister Heiko Maas’ “harsh criticism of Moscow” these days. Harsh criticism of Moscow? From Germany? From the SPD? I must have slept right through that.

Since taking over the reigns of the Foreign Ministry some 10 weeks ago, Maas has accused Moscow of “increasingly hostile behavior,” particularly over its actions in Syria where it continues to prop up the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

Maas was also quick to point the finger at Moscow for alleged interference in western elections, last year’s cyber attack on the German government’s computer network, and the poison attack on ex-spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter Yulia in Salisbury, England.

But a Russia hardliner from the SPD? Let’s get real. That would be like Gazprom Gerd climbing into to bed with somebody in the White House.

PS: You’ll always find the people who stand for something somewhere else.

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

Category Archives: Habitudes