Category Archives: Helplessness

German of the day: Luftschloss

July 20, 2024 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means a castle in the air.

You know, a pipe dream. Like Germany’s renewable “energy turnaround” pipe dream. Only now the money has stopped coming down the pipe. Reality always sticks up its ugly little head sooner or later.

Germany Plans to Cut Renewable Subsidies as State Costs Soar – Nation to cut all payments next year when prices turn negative.

Payments will also be based on investment rather than output.

“When the government makes loans or subsidies to business, what it does is to tax successful private business in order to support unsuccessful private business.”

– Henry Hazlitt

Germany first to figure out what’s going on with Chinese 5G components

July 19, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

If you start counting at the end of the line.

Why Chinese technology set off alarm bells in Germany – Even as the German government moves to bar components made by China’s Huawei and ZTE from core parts of the country’s 5G networks, some German companies are looking to work with Chinese firms in other critical areas…

The ban comes as Chinese technology firms are increasingly viewed with suspicions for their allegedly too close ties to the government in Beijing. Especially Beijing’s drive to make companies like Huawei and ZTE world leaders in high-tech sectors makes Western governments wary of giving them too much influence on their national infrastructures.

The money…

July 18, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

She is all gone, señor.

Let’s see what Ukraine’s biggest, not second biggest military donor does next year.

Germany plans to halve military aid for Ukraine – Germany is planning to nearly halve military aid for Ukraine next year, from around €8bn (£6.7bn; $8.7bn) to around €4bn, according to a draft budget approved by the government.

Finance Minister Christian Lindner said Ukraine’s financing was “secure for the foreseeable future” due to a G7 group of rich nations scheme to raise $50bn from interest on frozen Russian assets.

Germany is Ukraine’s second biggest military donor, after the US. In 2024, Berlin’s budget for Kyiv is set at nearly €7.5bn.

It’s in their blood

July 17, 2024 By in Habitudes, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Not in their German blood. In their Leftist Brain blood.

Musk blasts German satirist over Trump assassination joke.

“Chancellor, what is this?” wrote Musk on X quoting a post by German climate change denier Naomi Seibt, in which she warns her followers about the German satirist Sebastian Hotz, also known as “El Hotzo”.

In his tweet, Musk questions why the German government employs Hotz, a claim made by right-wing Youtuber Naomi Seibt.

“I think it’s absolutely fantastic when fascists die.”

“The demand for fascists vastly outstrips the actual supply. The further fascism recedes into history the more self-proclaimed anti-fascists call people fascist who aren’t, a cost-free exercise bringing personal and political advantage.”

– Douglas Murray

“Collective embarrassment”

July 15, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: , , , Leave a comment

Certainly not about the performance of the German team during the Euro 2024 championship.

But…

Germans don’t like what Euro 2024 has exposed about their country – Since Berlin became the capital again 25 years ago, German ingenuity, once applied to solving problems, has been applied to finding excuses. No wonder national team manager Julian Nagelsmann decided to give the whole country a pep talk.

“The championship has shown Europeans just how many things don’t work in this country.”

And tax breaks for skilled German workers?

July 10, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Out of the question.

Wir sind doch nicht blöd (we aren’t stupid). Somebody has to pay for this.

Germany debates tax breaks for skilled foreign workers – The German government wants to grant skilled foreign workers a tax rebate if they take up employment in Germany. But the idea has been met with resistance.

But he’ll get over it

July 9, 2024 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

Real fast. It’s just how they roll here.

German defence minister deplores meagre military spending – Boris Pistorius’s criticism comes on eve of Nato summit in Washington.

German defence minister Boris Pistorius has criticised his government for approving less than a fifth of the budget increase he said was needed by Germany’s military, in stark remarks on the eve of a Nato summit in Washington.

“Kai will pay”

July 8, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Red marks the spot.

Berlin bans red triangle symbol used by Hamas to mark targets – Berlin has banned the inverted red triangle symbol due to its use by Hamas and their supporters to mark enemy targets in videos and graffiti.

The motion passed in the state senate said the scarlet arrow icon represents an immediate threat to Jews and to people committed to the freedom and security of Israel and should be banned at protests and in the context of the Middle East conflict.

The symbol has been used to target pro-Israel academics and politicians, including Kai Wegner, the Berlin mayor who ordered the eviction of pro-Palestine protesters from the city’s Free University by police.

“Kai will pay” was graffitied on the wall of a university under a red triangle.

“To our surprise,”

July 7, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

You didn’t want me to lecture you in person.

So I’ll just have to lecture from here at home.

Diplomatic tensions are escalating between Germany and Hungary after Budapest canceled a meeting between Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó and his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, that had been planned for Monday in Budapest.

The unusual last-minute cancellation — tantamount to a diplomatic éclat — comes after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other EU leaders strongly criticized a trip by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to Moscow, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

Baerbock had planned to raise the issue of Orbán’s meeting with Putin during her visit to Budapest on Monday. But “to our surprise, the Hungarian side canceled” the appointment with Szijjártó “at short notice,” a German foreign ministry official told reporters late Friday.