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Category Archives: Habitudes
How Germany Pays For Refugees?
It’s something they call “Steuerzahler” here.
That means taxpayer.
It’s a crazy new German concept the rest of the world ought to look into, I guess: The ever-expanding state taking on ever-expanding functions it finances by extorting a population ever-willing to pay up.
Ukraine war: How Germany pays for refugees – German leaders recently agreed on a €2 billion package helping states accommodate and integrate Ukrainian refugees fleeing Russia’s war. But money is not the only problem.
“Overall, we have found an acceptable compromise on the distribution of financial responsibility.”
German Of The Day: Zwickmühle
To be in the Zwickmuhle is to be in a predicament, to be on the horns of a dilemma.
As in Germany’s neighbors (see Ukraine and Poland) despising the pro-Russian policy it has been following forever, bypassing and ignoring them in the process. The punch line: Now the Germans are surprised, even offended that everyone is so upset about it. But it’s not much of a “dilemma,” if you ask me. It’s quite straightforward, really: The Germans went it alone, yet again, placed all their money on Putin & Co., and lost.
The reason for the rejection (for German President Steinmeier being unwelcome in Ukraine) is clearly Steinmeier’s course in recent years, which Kiev considers too Russia-friendly. As foreign minister, he had, among other things, always pushed for the construction of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. “The warnings, it’s true, from our Eastern European partners we should have taken more seriously. Especially as far as the period after 2014 was concerned and the expansion of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline. And that’s why holding on was certainly a mistake,” Steinmeier had admitted last week. But despite the admission of mistakes and errors: The extent to which Germany’s Russia policy in recent years has caused disquiet and upset in Kiev is only now becoming really clear.
The Steinmeier Formula
Otherwise known as the SPD Formula. It’s quite simple: Take a loaded handgun, point it at your foot, and then fire.
Angela Merkel HERSELF adopted the formula HERSELF. But her “conservative” CDU/CSU was more SPD than the SPD ITSELF so it’s quite understandable why she would have. Sort of.
Ukraine snubs German president over past ‘close ties to Russia’ – Volodymyr Zelenskiy rejects request by Frank-Walter Steinmeier for meeting in Kyiv, Bild reports.
“My sticking to [the Baltic Sea pipeline project] Nord Stream 2, that was definitely a mistake,” he said in Berlin on 4 April. “We held on to bridges that Russia no longer believed in, and of which our partners warned us.”
He added: “We failed to build a common European house. I did not believe Vladimir Putin would embrace his country’s complete economic, political and moral ruin for the sake of his imperial madness.”
Back To The Future
Or is it more like escape to the future? Because your plans aren’t panning out now?
Germany unveils plans to accelerate green energy expansion – The package envisages green energy accounting for 80% of the power mix in Europe’s biggest economy by 2030, up from about 40% now and a previous target of 65%.
Sure. It’s easy to set future deadlines for things you haven’t been able to do yet. The tricky part is setting these deadlines for things you’ll never be able to do. Like creating a Renewable German Green Utopia. Here just a few fun facts that nobody here wants to look at:
- Renewables in Germany contributed to electricity prices rising 50 percent since 2007. Electricity prices here are 45 percent higher than the European average and the highest in Europe. Now. And in that Brave New Future?
- Wind and solar renewables are unreliable, requiring 100% backup (you need two expensive energy systems, coal and gas in this case because nuclear is still verboten). They are also energy-dilute, that is, not -dense, meaning they require huge tracts of land, transmission lines, mining, etc.
- An example: If the U.S. was to generate all the energy it uses with renewables, 25% to 50% of all land in the U.S. would be needed. Today’s energy system needs just 0.5 percent of land in the U.S. (Smil, Power Density: A Key to Understanding Energy Sources and Uses).
In other words, running Germany on renewable energy ain’t never gonna happen.
Just Like I Got Everything Else Wrong
Ever. But who cares? I’m just the President of Germany.
I got Putin wrong, says chastened German President – German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, long an advocate of Western rapprochement with Russia, expressed regret for his earlier stance, saying his years of support for the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline had been a clear mistake.
Steinmeier, a Social Democrat who served as Foreign Minister under Chancellor Angela Merkel before being elevated to the presidency, said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine meant he and others had to reckon honestly with what they had got wrong.
The Germans Have Great Faith In Authority?
Why shouldn’t they? It’s served them really well in the past.
The German Faith in Authority – The ongoing pandemic revealed two problematic aspects of German society. Firstly, there appears to be widespread faith in government bodies and their decisions – and secondly, and conversely, there is a lack of scepticism towards the political process and the players in it. This includes the lack of a critical approach towards mainstream media.
“While the German is still pondering, the French have been to the streets three times already.”
Great Idea!
Pass a law that mandates gas storage facilities be filled by winter.
Only, what are you going to fill these storage facilties with? If Vladimir Putin turns off the gas, I mean. Oktoberfest beer?
Germany approves law mandating full gas storage before winter – The Bundestag lower house on Friday approved legislation requiring Germany’s privately-operated gas storage facilities to be full at the start of the next winter, to try to avert shortages in the event of a halt in Russian gas imports.
Germany Needs More Windmills
And pronto!
But until then, just in case you were wondering:
Germany to continue buying Russian-provided oil, gas, coal – German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Tuesday again dismissed calls to boycott Russian energy supplies in the wake of the attack on Ukraine.
Scholz said sanctions already imposed on Russia were hitting its economy “and this will only get more dramatic every day.”
At the same time, Scholz said the sanctions were designed to be “tolerable” for those imposing them, including in the long term.
“That is why Germany’s position on this question (of an energy boycott) remains unchanged,” he said.
German Of The Day: Endlich
That means finally. You know, like in “Finally! German anxiety is growing again.”
As if it had ever stopped.
Sales of “pop-up panic rooms” are booming.
German anxieties grow as Ukraine war continues – War has returned in Europe — and with it strong fears for the future. Germans are preparing for an emergency.
Observing Hermann 