Reality Can Be A Bitch Like That

March 19, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: Climate, Climate Change, CO2, CO2 Emissions, Coal Energy, German, Germans, Germany, Green energy, Nuclear energy, Renewable energy Leave a comment

After Missing Emissions Targets, Germany Creates Climate Watchdog.

Brilliant, really. First you shut down all your nuclear power plants, build more coal-firing power plants to compensate for them (renewable energy isn’t enough here for some odd reason) and then fail to meet the ridiculously ambitious emissions reduction goals you have set.

Then, once you’ve finally come clean about not being able to come clean, you “set up a ‘climate cabinet’ to coordinate emissions reduction efforts and ensure politicians (you, that is) keep their promises.”

I thought Kafka was dead. Come on, now. Did he write this?

Environment minister Svenja Schulze (SPD) detailed the plan to create a ministerial group to German newspaper Tageszeitung on Saturday, saying it would ensure that ideas to lower the country’s emissions don’t slip through the cracks.

On Course, Of Course

March 18, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Armies, Bundeswehr, Defense, Defense Spending, German, Germans, Germany, NATO Leave a comment

Don’t anyone ever tell you that Germans aren’t reliable.

As noted yesterday, the equipment used by the German army is still as inadequate as ever, despite repeated promises by the German defense minister to make improvements.

And now, despite claims by the German government to one day reach the official NATO target of 2 per cent GDP on defense spending it agreed to years ago, it won’t even be able to make the 1.5 percent it set for itself by 2024. This is “round,” as the Germans say. It all fits like a glove.

Germany is on course to miss its self-declared target for defence spending in a development that threatens to trigger a new row with the US and raises further questions over Berlin’s military contribution to Nato.

The government of Angela Merkel agreed last year to raise the German military budget to 1.5 per cent of gross domestic product by 2024 — a marked increase but still short of the official Nato target of 2 per cent.

But the 1.5 per cent target is now under threat after Olaf Scholz, the Social Democrat (SPD) finance minister, rebuffed plans for an ambitious increase in military spending in the years ahead, citing a worsening economic outlook.

Secret Report Not Much Of A Secret

March 17, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Bundeswehr, Defense, Defense Spending, German, Germans, Germany, NATO, Politics, Sexism, Women Leave a comment

It was just leaked, as secret reports so often are, and now it’s come out that – get this – the Bundeswehr’s equipment is still inadequate.

Yawn. Been there, done that. Top inadequacies this time? Of the Bundeswehr’s 53 Tiger combat helicopters only 11.6 of them are operational (they would never get me in that .6 one). With the NH90 transport helicopter it’s 17.5 from 71 and only 15.9 of the 71 CH-53 transport helicopters are ready for combat.

But not to worry (as if anybody is). German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen promised a “turnaround” in the Bundeswehr’s equipment department – a year or two or three ago. Other defense menisters would have been fired for this long ago, of course, but 1) she’s a girl and 2) she’s one of Angie Merkel’s bosom buddies.

Die Ausstattung der Bundeswehr ist laut einem Zeitungsbericht weiterhin mangelhaft. Das zeige der neueste, als geheim eingestufte “Bericht zur Materiallage der Hauptwaffensysteme der Bundeswehr”, schreibt die “Welt am Sonntag”.

Ali B. Vs. Susanna F.

March 12, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habeas Corpus, Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Angela Merkel, Asylum Seekers, Crime, German, Germans, Germany, Migrants, Murder, Rape, Refugees, Trials, Wiesbaden Leave a comment

Susanna F already lost before the trial began.

An Iraqi man went on trial in Germany on Tuesday (Mar 12) accused of the rape and murder of a teenage girl that inflamed anti-immigrant tensions amid a mass influx of asylum seekers.

The accused, Ali Bashar, 22, left Germany for northern Iraq shortly after the May 2018 crime but was arrested and brought back in a mission joined personally by Germany’s federal police chief.

“Everything just went black,” he says. Yes, it did. Right around 2015. This is all so unnecessary. Shouldn’t Angela Merkel be called to the witness stand for more clarification?

Ali B. gesteht Tötung von Susanna F.

Number Four Has Issues

March 11, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hypocrisy Tags: Aircraft, Arms exports, Bundeswehr, Defense, Defense Spending, Exports, German, Germans, Germany, Pacifism, Profit, Submarines 1 Comment

But it doesn’t really make much sense, does it?

How can the world’s fourth largest exporter of arms (don’t worry, they’ll be back up at third place again in no time) have “issues with readiness of submarines, aircraft” for its own army? Year in and year out, I mean. One could almost think it’s intentional.

The readiness of Germany’s weapons systems stood at about 70 percent in 2018 overall, but its submarines, heavy-lift helicopters and Tornado fighter jets faced continued challenges, the German Defence Ministry told lawmakers on Monday.

Germany is the fourth largest arms exporter in the world, according to a report released by the Stockholm Peace Research Institute on Monday.

We Need Professional Counseling

March 6, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: German, German-American Relations, Germans, Germany, Optimism, Pessimism, Polls, Studies, Surveys, USA 1 Comment

Not. Same old same old, if you ask me: Germans see ties worsening as Americans remain positive.

In the U.S., seven-in-ten say that relations with Germany are good, a sentiment that has not changed much in the past year. Germans, on the other hand, are much more negative: 73% say that relations with the U.S. are bad, a 17-percentage-point increase since 2017.

Americans want more cooperation with Germany, but Germans don’t reciprocate.

But The Next Time ISIS Starts A War…

March 5, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Citizenship, Dual-Citizenship, German, Germans, Germany, Government, Grand Coalition, ISIS, Laws, Legislation, Syria, Terror, Terrorists 1 Comment

Watch out! Dual-nationals who fight for them will lose their German citizenship!

This is how Germany kind of sort of works. It’s always too little, too late and heartfelt half-ass. And then everybody congratulates one another for having reached a compromise. It would be funny as hell if it weren’t so sad.

Germany is to introduce new legislation to remove citizenship from dual-nationals who fight for the self-styled Islamic State (IS) and other terrorist groups.

To date, German nationals could only have their citizenship stripped if they joined foreign armed forces without the government’s permission. Now the German government has decided to extend the legislation to cover German citizens who travel to fight on behalf of a terror militia.

Meanwhile, in Syria… “The United States is asking Britain, France, Germany and other European allies to take back over 800 Isis fighters that we captured in Syria and put them on trial. The Caliphate is ready to fall. The alternative is not a good one in that we will be forced to release them.”

Needless to say, the Germans don’t want them. Nor do they wish to try them. Is Guantanamo still in operation?

So ein Sinnlos-Gesetz kann sich wirklich nur die GroKo ausdenken.

How Could She?

March 4, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hideology, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: Fasching, Germany, Jokes, Karnival, LGBT, Mardi Gras, Political correctness 2 Comments

How could anyone possibly make a joke about gender-neutral bathrooms?

Or hipsters? Or German men who sit down when they pee? None of that is the slightest bit funny. Especially not during the Karnival season. I’m empört (outraged).

In the segment, which aired on public broadcaster SWR, a festively-dressed Kramp-Karrenbauer pokes fun at Berlin’s hipster reputation, saying that the “latte macchiato faction” has “installed third-gender bathrooms” in cafés. She goes on to say that gender-neutral bathrooms are “for the men who can’t decide if they want to sit or stand when they pee.”

“Natürlich ist eine Entschuldigung fällig.”

Maybe Merkel Will Walk Out, Too

March 3, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Angela Merkel, Climate Change, Demonstrations, German, Germans, Germany, Protest Leave a comment

Someday. Maybe. Could be but we must all remain patient. And hopeful.

Protest Germ

German students walk out of school in climate change protest – Germany’s Angela Merkel backs student ‘Friday for Future’ climate protests.

The protest is part of a global movement known as “School Strike 4 Climate” or “Fridays For Future” launched last August when Thunberg began protesting outside the Swedish parliament on school days.

About 3,000 students marched through the streets of the port city chanting: “We are here, we are loud, because you are stealing our future.”

“I believe it is a very good initiative.”

Not Paying Him Would Have Been Inhumane

March 1, 2019 By Hermann Observer in Habeas Corpus, Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: 9/11, Courts, Hamburg, Justice, Law, Mass Murder, Mounir el-Motassadeq, Payments, Police, Prison, Terror, Terrorists Leave a comment

German prosecutors have launched an investigation into why a Moroccan man convicted of assisting the 9/11 suicide plotters was allowed to leave Germany with an envelope containing €7,000 in cash.

Well, on the one hand… It is forbidden to pay the money from a “prisons account” to terrorists or terror suspects because their assets are meant to be frozen and inaccessible.

But on the other hand, dumping this poor mass murder accomplice off in Casablanca without any cash in his pocket would have been just plain cruel and unusual.

Motassadeq war Mitglied der sogenannten Hamburger Zelle um den Todespiloten Mohammed Atta, der 2001 eines der Flugzeuge in das World Trade Center in New York gesteuert hatte.

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

Category Archives: Habitudes