Just in the nick of time!

Hang in there, Lithuania.

German cavalry is on its way.

German brigade to be combat ready in Lithuania, on Russian border, in 2027.

A permanent German brigade of about 4,800 soldiers in Lithuania, on the Russian border, will be combat-ready in 2027, defence ministers of both NATO members said on Monday after signing an agreement on German troops’ first permanent foreign deployment since World War Two.

Germans award literary prize to an author who compares Gaza to Nazi-era ghettos

Ain’t no big deal. Nazi talk has never been doing better in Germany.

The name-calling kind. It’s the latest rage, around the globe even. Join the fun. Everybody’s doing it!

Gessen was originally due to receive the Hannah Arendt Prize for Political Thought on Friday in the city hall of Bremen, in northwest Germany, but the sponsoring organization, the Heinrich Böll Foundation, and the Senate of the city of Bremen withdrew from the ceremony.

“Unscrupulous smugglers who brutally put people’s lives at risk?”

Do you mean the politicians like you who smuggled this migrant madness into Europe in the first place?

Germany extends checks at Polish, Czech, Swiss borders until mid-March – Measures seek to combat smuggling and limit irregular migration.

“Our fight against the unscrupulous business of smugglers, who brutally put people’s lives at risk, is successful,” Faeser said. Since mid-October, the Federal Police have arrested around 340 smugglers as part of internal border controls, she added. According to her, the number of unauthorized entries nationwide has fallen by more than 60 percent since the temporary border controls were introduced in October, from over 20,000 in October to about 7,300 in November.

I didn’t know you could close a river

Especially one that was supposed to have dried up long ago.

Just this summer it was all over with the Rhine, I was told. But hey. The Climate Crises can be like that. One climate crisis is too dry. The next one is two wet. It’s kind of like the weather, you know?

River Rhine in south Germany remains closed to shipping – Parts of the river Rhine in south Germany remained closed to shipping on Friday after heavy rain and melting snow increased water levels, but could reopen later this weekend, navigation authorities said.

We did it!

My back is starting to hurt from all the patting I’ve been giving it.

We’ll just get around that old debt brake six months from now by declaring another “unforseen emergency” for more debt our high court can’t stop us from making. We’ve even announced what that unforeseen emergency will most likely be: Ukraine.

Germany clinches last-minute 2024 budget deal, keeps debt brake – Germany’s government clinched a last-minute deal on its 2024 budget on Wednesday that will see Berlin return to its self-imposed limits on new debt despite warnings this could hamper growth in Europe’s top economy and its green transition.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s three-party coalition was faced with either suspending what is known as the debt brake or finding some 17 billion euros ($18.3 billion) in savings and tax hikes after a Nov. 15 constitutional court ruling threw its plans into disarray…

Others said the deal simply delayed a necessary decision on how to fund investments in an economy that has already suffered years of chronic underinvestment. Last month’s court ruling has made clear the government will not be able to resort as easily to off-budget funds going forwards.

Dabblers

You call that debt?

Sure, you’re burning too much of the taxpayers’ money but if you want to see how it’s really done, take a look at The Banana Republic of US-Amerika.

Hard-pressed Germans dabble in debt but want government thrift – Most Germans do not want their government to loosen its strict borrowing rules to fix a budget mess – but many in a nation that prides itself on thrift are building up their own debts as a cost of living crisis deepens.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s coalition is reeling from a court ruling last month that has thrown its finances into disarray and forced it to suspend a constitutionally enshrined “debt brake” for the 2023 budget.

German of the day: Wärmepumpe

That means heat pump.

You know, the warming device that needs government subsidies to get anyone to install it (promised subsidies that will now no longer be offered)?

German heat pump rollout at risk as government suspends climate subsidies – Move could also undermine nine funding programmes, covering schemes from energy efficient homes to cargo bikes provision.

Nine funding programmes, covering everything from energy efficient homes to cargo bikes for commercial use, are now on hold as Olaf Scholz’s coalition government seeks to make savings of about €17bn (£15bn).

The government was thrown into a quandary last month over how to finance its ambitious environmental and industrial transformation programme (KTF) when the country’s highest court blocked its attempts to switch €60bn of pandemic-era borrowing to pay for it.

Time to say goodbye

To your latest Green fantasies.

The money. She is gone, señor.

Germany’s Greens thought their moment had finally come… But then, last month, Germany’s top court handed down a ruling that effectively stripped the ruling coalition of the full financial firepower it needs to make those ambitions a reality.

The bombshell ruling by Germany’s Constitutional Court blew a €60 billion hole in the country’s finances, leaving the government scrambling to fill the gap. At the same time, the ruling sharply limits the government’s ability to draw from special funds created to circumvent the country’s constitutional debt brake, which restricts the federal deficit to 0.35 percent of GDP except in times of emergency.

These special funds were supposed to help finance several projects which are core to the Greens’ agenda — such as the transition of steel plants to hydrogen energy, subsidies for battery and microchip production, and the modernization of the country’s railway network.

Lone Muslim + terror attack = “undergoing psychiatric treatment”

That’s the standard European media formula used in cases like this.

They have ready-made templates for “stories” like this, all prepared in their top desk drawer, so-to-speak. They are meant to absolve the powers that be (and “the religion of peace” itself, of course) from its duties of addressing the real problem. And it works like a charm. Every time.

German tourist killed and two others injured in central Paris attack – Police arrest a man known to authorities as a radical Islamist after passersby attacked near Eiffel Tower.