Category Archives: Habitudes

Everything Is Going To Plan

March 15, 2023 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

You didn’t really believe that Germany was going to spend that 100 billion euro special fund for the military for the military, did you?

German military in worse shape than before Russia’s invasion – The German military is suffering from a greater shortage of weapons and equipment than before Russia’s invasion of Ukraine a year ago, the Parliamentary Commissioner for the Armed Forces said in her annual report on Tuesday.

“The Bundeswehr has too little of everything, and it has even less since (Russia’s invasion on) Feb. 24, 2022,” Eva Hoegl, who acts as an advocate defending the rights of the troops, told reporters in Berlin.

German Of The Day: Austritt

March 13, 2023 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means to leave, exit, resign. You know, like the ever-rising number of Germans leaving the two once big German Catholic and Lutheran state churches (church tax retained and distributed by the state)? No one can figure out why.

German Synodal Way backs same-sex blessings and transgender priests…

They also voted for the normalisation of lay preaching and also agreed to ask the Holy See to “re-examine” the discipline of priestly celibacy.

Old-time religion this is not. Just roll over and die and get it over with.

German Of The Day: Blockadepolitik

March 12, 2023 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

That means “blockade politics” or conducting a policy of obstruction.

Geez. The EU is getting really frustrated with Germany these days because it still acts as if it were a sovereign country from time to time.

Germany Is Becoming a Roadblock for More and More EU Business – Row over combustion-engine ban symptomatic of wider problem, Conduct seen as especially unhelpful during period of upheaval.

The unpredictable behavior of Germany’s ruling coalition is becoming a disruptive influence in Europe and raising hackles across the continent.

A last-ditch move this month to block a European Union push to phase out combustion-engine vehicles was only the latest example. On issues ranging from financial aid for Ukraine to reform of state-aid and budget rules, Germany’s EU partners and officials in Brussels have become increasingly frustrated with Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center—left alliance of his Social Democrats, the Greens and the business-friendly Free Democrats.

“Illegal Border Crossings?”

March 9, 2023 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Into the EU? Even though nobody in the EU dares refer to illegal border crossings as illegal border crossings?

EU got to love it, Europeans. You have no choice. It’s not like anybody is asking for your approval or permission.

German cities struggling with winter influx of migrants from the Western Balkans – This winter, cities in Germany faced yet another influx of refugees but this time it was not Ukrainians fleeing war but people from Western Balkan countries seeking to escape their countries’ harsh winters and poor social living conditions.

The Western Balkan route was, in 2022, the most used for illegal border crossings into the EU, according to the bloc’s external border agency. Frontex recorded 145,600 illegal crossings through the Western Balkan, a 136% jump from the previous year and the highest number observed since 2015.

German Of The Day: Zeitenwende

March 6, 2023 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means turning point.

Germans love announcing turning points. It makes things sound so, I dunno, official or something. And it’s official here too: Their latest military turning point is working almost as well as their energy turning point (Energiewende) did. Namely, not at all.

Germany’s military ‘Zeitenwende’ is off to a slow start.

Three days after Russia invaded Ukraine, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz delivered a rousing speech to the Bundestag. He had a clear message: Russian President Vladimir Putin’s aggression has ushered in a new era of war in Europe, and wealthy countries like Germany, having pared down their defense spending for decades, needed to rearm. A year after German lawmakers applauded Scholz’s call to action, and as Scholz visits the White House on March 3, 2023, one must ask what has become of Germany’s much-heralded Zeitenwende, or “turning point.”

Thanks For Nothing

March 5, 2023 By in Habitudes, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

From Mr. Nothing himself.

To Mini-Mr. Nothing himself. Wow, and to think that he flew all the way over from Germany just to receive this nothing. But it was “profound” nothing, after all. And that’s certainly better than nothing. So think nothing of it.

Biden thanks Scholz for ‘profound’ German support on Ukraine – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and President Biden praised trans-Atlantic unity and vowed to keep up their joint cooperation to support Ukraine during Scholz’s visit to the White House.

I Don’t Know How Much More Feminist Foreign Policy The Germans Can Take

March 2, 2023 By in Habitudes, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Didn’t they just have, like, forty years or something of “feminist foreign policy” under Angela Merkel? And wasn’t Urusla von der Leyen a big German Exportschlager (top export) in the EU feminist foreign policy department?

Look where that got them. But hey, this Annalena Baerbock really strikes me as someone who can finally get this feminist foreign policy stuff down pat. Something tells me that feminist foreign policy is now going to bring peace to Ukraine overnight. All you have to do is ask for it! A man would have never thought of doing this.

Germany announces new “feminist foreign policy” – Germany’s centre-left government on Wednesday announced new feminist guidelines to shape its diplomacy and development work including the creation of a new role for an “ambassador for feminist foreign policy”.

Germany will lobby to ensure women’s concerns are more in focus worldwide, that women are better represented and that the country’s generous development funds are allocated more to projects that tackle gender inequality, according to the guidelines.

Nor Will He

February 28, 2023 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Olaf Scholz has not delivered on his sweeping vision for a more modern, more active German military.

And anybody who thinks will ever live up to their promises about defense spending is a fool.

Chancellor Olaf Scholz summarized his country’s approach to the war in Ukraine. “Despite all the pressure to take action,” he said, “caution must take priority over hasty decisions, unity over solo actions.” The line provided Scholz’s most explicit defense to date of Germany’s cycle of denial and delay.

A year ago, Scholz announced a special investment fund of more than 100 billion euros to strengthen the German military, but less than a third of those euros have been assigned to contracts. Defense Minister Boris Pistorius recently aired concerns that Germany’s stockpiles have been depleted by its generous transfers to Ukraine. These comments strain common sense when most of the “special funds” remained unspent until December, when lawmakers finally approved the first procurements. This month, Scholz also abandoned plans to establish a National Security Council, a body that would have been well suited to manage an expanded role in the defense of Europe.

German Of The Day: Sonntagsreden

February 24, 2023 By in Habitudes, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means Sunday sermons. As in political sermons that sound nice to those giving them but never lead to anything other than nonbinding resolutions.

Like the one German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock gave yesterday at the United Nations – the world’s most popular venue for Sonntagsreden.

Germany’s foreign minister Annalena Baerbock addressed the United Nations General Assembly before a vote for a U.N. resolution upholding Ukraine’s territorial integrity and calling for a cessation of hostilities after Russia’s invasion. Every country, she argued, had a duty to send a clear signal that the war was coming to an end. Addressing the 30 to 40 countries likely to abstain from the resolution, including China, India and South Africa, she noted: “Today each of us has to make a decision to stand in isolation with the oppressor or stand together for peace.”

The U.N. General Assembly then approved a nonbinding resolution Thursday that calls for Russia to end hostilities in Ukraine and withdraw its forces, sending a strong message on the eve of the first anniversary of the invasion that Moscow’s aggression must stop.

The resolution, drafted by Ukraine in consultation with its allies, passed 141-7, with 32 abstentions.