Category Archives: Habitudes

Rewarded for failure(s)

June 3, 2025 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

If you were catastrophically inept at your last job, it’s time for you to get a promotion.

Everybody’s doing it. See Ursula von der Leyen who got promoted to President of the European Union after bungling her job as German Defense Minister – and two or three other jobs before that.

Germany’s Baerbock elected as UN General Assembly head – Former Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock was voted in as president of the UN General Assembly. Meanwhile, Germany’s tough migration policy has been dealt a setback in court.

And in two months it will be a rained out summer

June 1, 2025 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Hysteria Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

It’s the never-ending cycle of “climate crisis” hysteria.

Not enough rain: How can Germany cope with drought?

This spring was one of the driest on record in Germany. Agriculture, groundwater, and even retail prices are suffering. Plants and ecosystems are already in drought stress. What can be done?

World champions of misjudgement accuse Donald Trump of misjudgement

May 21, 2025 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

So I judge this to probably be another misjudgement.

Trump misjudged influence on Putin, German defence minister says – U.S. President Donald Trump misjudged his influence on Russian President Vladimir Putin, Germany’s defence minister said on Wednesday, after a phone call between the two leaders yielded no progress in Ukraine peace talks, prompting Europe to announce new Russia sanctions.

“I suspect he assessed his negotiating position incorrectly,” Boris Pistorius told the Deutschlandfunk radio broadcaster, following Trump’s now-abandoned efforts to pressure Putin into accepting an unconditional 30-day ceasefire.

Delusions of Grandeur V9.0

May 15, 2025 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

Version 9 as in nein as in it ain’t never gonna happen.

Aiming to strengthen the Bundeswehr to match the size and punch of a medium-sized American city’s police force…

Germany’s Merz vows to build Europe’s strongest army – “Our friends and partners also expect this from us, and what’s more, they are actually demanding it,” said the new chancellor.

Good thing the American pension system works

May 13, 2025 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Only it doesn’t. None of them work.

It’s the 800-pound gorilla locked away in every country’s closet – for now.

Germany struggles to fix its pension system – Germany’s aging population is putting the country’s pension system under strain. The new Labor Minister Bärbel Bas has ruffled feathers with a proposal for how to fix it.

Good luck with that.

German of the day: Märchenwald

May 11, 2025 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means fairytale forest.

You know, the German Brothers Grimm kind. The kind Germans these days level for wind parks.

Plan for windfarm in German ‘fairytale forest’ stokes green energy culture war – Far right accused of misinformation over turbines at Reinhardswald, which has left local people divided.

Deep in the woods that inspired the Brothers Grimm, past the tower from which Rapunzel threw down her hair and the castle in which Sleeping Beauty slumbered, lies a construction site that the far right has declared a crime against national soil and identity.

In this quiet corner of Germany’s “fairytale forest”, workers are clearing land and building access roads to erect 18 wind turbines.

Clean and lean

May 10, 2025 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Very, very, lean.

But at least it’s clean. Whatever that should mean.

Clean energy sources generated the smallest amount of Germany’s electricity in over a decade so far in 2025, dealing a blow to the energy transition momentum of Europe’s largest economy.

Electricity generation from clean power sources totalled just under 80 terawatt hours (TWh) during the first four months of the year, according to data from energy think tank Ember.

That clean energy volume is down 16% from the same months in 2024 and is the lowest for that period since at least 2015.

German of the day: Trittbrettfahrerei

May 9, 2025 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means free-riding.

After solomnly commemorating the end of World War II 80 years ago…

German politicians solomnly commemorated the end of 80 years of free-riding on defense spending.

It was emotional.

Newly elected German Chancellor Friedrich Merz joined a wreath-laying ceremony in Berlin. The Bundestag also held its own remembrance service.