Nobody else’s pension system works

Why should Germany’s?

They are all brilliant systems and they all work the same way: You pay into it your entire working life while your government pumps in ever more money to prop it up and thus burden future generations with massive growing debt (interest rates rock). This Ponzi scheme only works if parents have way more children (at least three on average). It stopped working a long, long time ago, in other words.

Germany struggles to fix its pension system – German society is aging fast and the working-age population is shrinking. There are new plans to make the pension system fit for the future, but critics have said they won’t work.

Half of Germans support reintroducing military service

For the other half.

And for some odd reason the younger Germans are much less enthusiastic about the idea than older Germans.

Around half of German citizens are in favour of reintroducing compulsory military service, according to a survey by opinion research institute Forsa.

In the poll commissioned by German news magazine Stern, 52% of respondents were in favour of compulsory military service, the magazine said on Tuesday.

Some 43% were against it and 5% expressed no opinion. According to the data, the strongest supporters of compulsory military service were found in the over-60 age group, with 59% in favour. In contrast, 59% of 18 to 29-year-olds were against compulsory military service.

“Life in prison”

Is what this guy deserves. But “life in prison” doesn’t mean “life in prison” in Germany.

It means fifteen (15) years.

A US man is sentenced to life in prison for murder and rape in attack on 2 American women in Germany – An American man was convicted of murder and other charges on Monday for brutally attacking two American women near Germany’s famed Neuschwanstein castle last summer and pushing them into a ravine, fatally injuring one of them. He was sentenced to life in prison…

Presiding judge Christoph Schwiebacher determined that the defendant bears particularly severe guilt, meaning that he LIKELY won’t be eligible for release after 15 years as is usually the case in Germany… “a release after 15 years would not be justifiable” but he’ll get released anyway.

German of the day: Brandanschlag

That means aerson attack.

The Tree People did it (they’re kind of like the Sand People in Star Wars, only with trees)!

Tesla without electricity is like a… Well, this is what it’s like:

Tesla factory near Berlin evacuated! No power for hours after arson attack. Production at a standstill ++ Bomb searchers move in…

Peaceful protest turns into naked violence! Eco-criminals paralyzed Tesla’s car factory in Grünheide (12,500 employees) with an arson attack on Tuesday morning. The entire factory, the town of Erkner and parts of Berlin are without electricity. Bomb searchers are now moving in. The car factory has been evacuated!

Those were the days…

When we could smirk our smirk with impunity.

But then the real world happened. Again.

Germany Should Have Listened to Trump – He was right about Berlin’s self-defense and risky energy dependence on Russia.

The lower house of Germany’s Parliament voted to legalize the recreational use of cannabis last week. It was a timely move. Germany’s leadership class is going to need all the mellow it can find in a world that isn’t going Germany’s way.

Political? The Berlin Film Festival?

That’s all we’ve ever been. It’s never been about film.

But we’re not just Crappy-Movies-R-Us anymore. Now we’re openly anti-Israeli. Wait. We’ve always been openly anti-Israel. But now we’re openly openly anti-Israeli.

Germany launches probe over Berlin film festival anti-Israel row – German officials will investigate how Berlin film festival winners were able to make “one-sided” comments condemning Israel’s war in Gaza at the event’s finale, a government spokeswoman says.

At Saturday’s awards ceremony, several winners were accused of making biased remarks on stage in relation to Israel’s war against Hamas, which began after the October 7 assault by the terror group that killed some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and saw 253 taken hostage.

US filmmaker Ben Russell, wearing a Palestinian scarf, accused Israel of committing “genocide.”

It just keeps getting wackier…

Europe’s largest emitter of CO2 wants to start burying it in the ocean.

Do you have any idea how much dirt that would take?

OK, they want to bury it in sub-seabed storage. But still.

Germany to allow carbon capture, underwater storage – German Economy Minister Robert Habeck says Berlin will need to allow sub-seabed storage of CO2 produced in certain industries in order to reach its goal to be carbon neutral by 2045.

Recreation time!

I’ll see you down at the cannabis club.

Germany’s Parliament to Debate and Vote on Liberalizing Cannabis Rules – German lawmakers are expected to vote on a government plan to liberalize rules on cannabis, which would decriminalize limited amounts of marijuana and allow members of “cannabis clubs” to buy it for recreational purposes.

But look on the bright side…

Maybe destroying all low-Earth orbit satellite communication forever might be a good thing.

Just saying. It would give us the opportunity to get back to the basics again. Back to the roots. And the nuts and the berries.

RUSSIA’S SPACE NUKE COULD DESTROY ORBIT FOR WHOLE PLANET, GERMANS WARN – “NOBODY WOULD SURVIVE AN ACTION LIKE THAT — NO SATELLITE, EITHER CHINESE OR RUSSIAN AND AMERICAN OR EUROPEAN.”

The anti-satellite space weapon Russia is said to be developing could potentially destroy low-Earth orbit for everyone.

“If somebody dares to explode a nuclear weapon in high atmosphere or even space, this would be more or less the end of the usability of that global commons,”

Predictably unpredictable

What do expect from a coalition government of three consisting of Green utopians, spendthrift social democratic regulation freaks and free-market capitalists (true liberals, in other words)?

This is how Germans vote. Remember: “Every country has the government it deserves.” Just look at the Banana Republic itself, if you don’t believe me.

EU partners lose trust in Berlin after policy U-turns – Lawmakers and diplomats in Brussels express frustration at Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s unpredictable coalition.

For years Germany was seen as a rock of stability and predictability in the EU. These days, its partners wonder what curveball Berlin will throw at them next. 

Last week the German government sent shockwaves through Brussels by withdrawing its support for a piece of legislation that it had long appeared to back: the EU’s new supply chain law.