China Number One For Germany

July 14, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Hypocrisy Tags: Business, China, Communism, Corona, Coronavirus, COVID-19, Democracy, Exports, Free speech, German, Germans, Germany, Hong Kong, Money, Profit, Taiwan Leave a comment

And Taiwan is not even number wan. Nor is the regional flag of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, I suppose.

The German Foreign Ministry doesn’t want to possibly offend the Communist rulers in Beijing. This is why they must discriminate. One must discriminate to properly ingratiate.

Taiwan accuses Germany of discrimination after flag removal – The German Foreign Ministry has removed the Taiwanese flag from its website where it describes bilateral relations. Taiwan has expressed its displeasure, citing how other territorial flags remain.

“We have a one-China policy. We do not have diplomatic relations with?Taiwan and?Taiwan?is not a country we recognize.”

Zero-Sum Red Alert: Number Of German Millionaires Rising!

July 10, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hostility, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Envy, German, Germans, Germany, Money, Redistribution, Studies, Surveys, Taxation, Wealth, Zero-Sum Thinking Leave a comment

Germany is not only 1) a society based on envy, 2) Germans think that anyone else’s gain is automatically someone else’s loss and 3) they expect the wealthy to be punished for being wealthy. If they failed to be punished, then that would only encourage others to become wealthy too.

World Wealth Report: Germany’s dollar millionaires on the rise – The number of Germany’s dollar millionaires rose by 100,000 in 2019, according to the World Wealth Report. The US had the biggest upturn, although the coronavirus crisis could change the upward trend.

PS: A new groundbreaking study published in the American Psychological Association Journal Emotion has just discovered that, on average, the more income someone makes, the happier they are.

German Of The Day: Mohr

July 8, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Hostility, Humor, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Berlin, BLM, George Floyd, German, Germans, Germany, Language, Mohrstraße, Political correctness, Racism, Streets, Subway Stations Leave a comment

That means Moor. As in Moor wacky BLM bullshit.

Moors were “the Muslim inhabitants of the Maghreb, the Iberian Peninsula, Sicily, and Malta during the Middle Ages. The Moors initially were the indigenous Maghrebine Berbers. The name was later also applied to Arabs.”

They were also black. You know, dark-skinned people? Or at least that is what the word Mohr is associated with in German. This, of course, has now led to a great big giant world-shaking problem in Berlin. Yawn.

What’s in a name? Berlin wrestles with past in metro station row – Transit authority to rename slavery-linked Mohrenstrasse after AN ANTISEMITIC RUSSIAN COMPOSER.

Get it? Me neither.

Some historians dispute the street name’s origins and argue the word Mohr is merely old-fashioned rather than derogatory.

The Regulator Failed?

July 6, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: BaFin, Bureaucracy, Bureaucrats, German, Germans, Germany, Government, Government spending, Government Waste, Regulation, Regulators, Wirecard Leave a comment

Well, then let’s give the regulator more money and personnel.

To ensure that they keep on failing in the future? Government in action, folks. If it’s not too big to fail it’s too much of a failure to fail, I guess.

Germany to overhaul regulator after Wirecard scandal – Germany’s finance minister wants to beef up the nation’s financial regulator in the wake of the Wirecard scandal. The finance watchdog admitted its ineffectiveness in preventing the auditing disaster.

“If we come to the conclusion that BaFin needs more money, more jobs and more competency, I will make every effort to ensure that this happens.”

Just Say No

July 5, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: Coal, Coal-Fired Power Plants, Energy, German, Germans, Germany, Government Waste, Industry, Nuclear energy, Renewable energy, Solar energy, Taxation, Wind Energy Leave a comment

No, not no to drugs. Just say no to energy. Electricity was yesterday.

No nuclear energy, no coal energy. Not much sun either for solar energy. There’s lots of wind in Germany, though. Hot air mostly but still.

Germany is first major economy to phase out coal and nuclear – German lawmakers have finalized the country’s long-awaited phase-out of coal as an energy source, backing a plan that environmental groups say isn’t ambitious enough and free marketeers criticize as a waste of taxpayers’ money.

Bills approved by both houses of parliament Friday envision shutting down the last coal-fired power plant by 2038 and spending some 40 billion euros ($45 billion) to help affected regions cope with the transition.

The plan is part of Germany’s ‘energy transition’ – an effort to wean Europe’s biggest economy off planet-warming fossil fuels and generate all of the country’s considerable energy needs from renewable sources. Achieving that goal is made harder than in comparable countries such as France and Britain because of Germany’s existing commitment to also phase out nuclear power by the end of 2022.

You’ll Be Pleading A Long Time, Joshua

July 3, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: China, Communism, Democracy, German, Germans, Germany, Hong Kong, Joshua Wong, Profit, Protests Leave a comment

And then all you’ll get will be some pious platitudes.

China can do no wrong in German eyes – with all those dollar/euro signs in there.

Hong Kong activist Joshua Wong pleads for Germany’s support – Hong Kong pro-democracy activist Joshua Wong has called on Germany to intervene over a controversial new security law imposed by China. Police arrested hundreds after the law went into effect earlier this week.

“I ask the German government: Look at what is happening in Hong Kong and call it by its name.”

That Would Be A Great Step Forward

June 29, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hostility, Humility, Humor, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: Angela Merkel, Defense, Donald Trump, Exports, German, Germans, Germany, NATO, Nord Stream 2, Russia, Tariffs, Trade-War, Troops, Vladimir Putin Leave a comment

America’s relationship with Germany may never be the same again, Berlin warns.

Defense spending, a brewing trade war between the U.S. and Europe and the threat of U.S. tariffs on German car exports are all bones of contention, as well as the mega gas pipeline Nord Stream 2 (a German-Russian project) and, most recently, the Group of Seven (G-7) alliance and the U.S.’ decision to withdraw troops from Germany.

The Germans don’t want to cooperate, not in any of these areas and they’re playing the victim by putting all the blame on Dr. Evil. It’s a pretty easy tactic to see through and its been quite successful up until now. They got themselves into this mess, however. Germans always want an Extrawurst (an extra sausage, something for nothing). Trump sees this and is pointing the finger in the right direction. The Germans know that he sees this and they don’t like having been caught.

“We’re protecting Germany and they’re delinquent. That doesn’t make sense.”

Isn’t It The Other Way Around?

June 28, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Angela Merkel, Dominance, EU, Europe, Eurozone, German, Germans, Germany, Hegemony, Power, Ursula von der Leyen Leave a comment

Isn’t Europe doomed to be led by Germany?

Germany is doomed to lead Europe – The EU’s biggest member is in charge, whether Germans like it or not.

Walk into any meeting in Brussels and, most likely, a German will be leading it. In the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, the former German defence minister, is in charge. For the next six months, German ministers will be cajoling their peers into signing off legislation as the country takes over the EU’s rotating presidency. In the European Council, where the bloc’s leaders butt heads, it might technically be Charles Michel, the former prime minister of Belgium, heading it. But it is Angela Merkel—longer in post than the leaders of France, Spain, Italy and Poland combined—who is the undisputed top dog. The EU’s main response to the covid-19 crisis—a flagship €750bn recovery fund paid for with debt issued collectively by the EU—is based on a plan cooked up in Berlin and Paris. The Germans are running the show.

How did Henry Kissinger put it? “Poor old Germany. Too big for Europe, too small for the world.”

PS: German oddity 5. Young adults in Germany have never known another chancellor other than Angela Merkel. She has been in office since 2005.

German Of The Day: Dax-Zombie

June 25, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Hideology, Home Cooking, Horror, Humility, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Blue Chips, Corruption, Crime, Criminals, DAX, German, Germans, Germany, Language, Stock Market, Stocks, Wirecard Leave a comment

That means DAX zombie.

For the first time, a DAX company, Wirecard, has gone broke but won’t be kicked out of the index until September.

Wirecard has filed for insolvency, just days after a $2 billion accounting scandal at the company burst into the open, crashing its stock and leading to the arrest of its former chief executive.

The digital payments company said in a statement Thursday it had opened legal proceedings in Munich “due to impending insolvency and over-indebtedness.” Share

Mit Wirecard ist zum ersten Mal ein Dax-Konzern pleite gegangen. Aus dem Leitindex fliegen dürfte der Konzern aber erst im September.

How To Avoid Getting Scolded By A German?

June 24, 2020 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Humor, Hurt Feelings Tags: Books, Culture, eBooks, Europe, German, Germans, Germany, Humor, Oddities, Scolding, Travel Leave a comment

That’s easy. Practice very aggressive social distancing. You know. Like, move to France?

Have you ever walked on the bicycle lane? Put a refundable bottle into a regular bin? Asked a bus driver how much the ride costs? In Germany, these beginners’ mistakes might earn you a good scold. Here’s how to avoid it…

“The point is not whether they are right or not, it’s that anyone here thinks they’re allowed to educate you.”

German Oddity 177. Germany is what you might call a correcting culture. It is not uncommon for perfect strangers to publically reprimand you here if you do not abide by what is considered the societal norm. Newcomers are usually shocked when discovering that others have no qualms about telling you that you’re doing something wrong, as if you were a small child. If they don’t tell you outright there will at least be a display of disapproving headshaking.

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

Category Archives: Habitudes