German Blackout Experts Now Giving Blackout Courses

“I’m taking Blackout Basics. Which one did you enroll in?”

The folks who caused the situation in the first place (German voters) are now teaching each other how to avoid the situation they already caused in the first place. Go renewables! Nuclear energy? Nein, Danke!

Growing number of Germans won’t be left in dark with blackout courses – Once purely the stuff of action movie plots, the prospect of the lights going out in Europe’s biggest economy has become a conceivable threat during the current energy crisis.

Looking to be the heroes in a real-life blackout, a growing number of Germans are turning to citizens’ courses to learn how to act if they find themselves plunged into darkness.

“If the electricity goes out then absolutely nothing works any more. And we need to understand what ‘nothing working’ really means,” said Birgitt Eberlin, an instructor at the Workers’ Samaritan Federation (ASB).

Democracy: It Ain’t Much

But it’s still better than a Nazi dictatorship and a totalitarian communist regime. I guess.

Study: Germans more satisfied with democracy as a form of government – Public satisfaction with democracy in Germany has risen over the past two years, while in some cases extreme right-wing attitudes have declined significantly. At the same time, hatred of migrants, women, Muslims and other groups in Germany has increased and become widespread. In addition, stronger desires for authority can be observed in the wake of the pandemic. These are key findings of the representative “Leipzig Authoritarianism Study.”

Brexit Was Yesterday

Let’s let bygones be bygones. We’re friends again, right?

Now that we need to come groveling for your natural gas?

Germany keen to discuss natural gas pact with UK amid supply risk – Officials interested in deal that would allow two countries to bail each other out in event of shortages.

Such an agreement could be mutually beneficial for both London and Berlin, the German civil servant in charge of rationing in the case of a supply crisis told the Guardian in an interview.

Mixed Signals

And all of them bad.

The next German Alleingang (going it alone).

European Commissioner for Industry and the Internal Market Thierry Breton, a Frenchman, warned Scholz: “The time for naivety is over. We must be on guard.” The behaviour of the individual EU members towards China must be coordinated and not decided alone, “as China apparently prefers.” French President Emmanuel Macron suggested that he and Scholz should fly to China together at a later date to demonstrate European unity, a suggestion which Scholz ignored.

Christian Democratic Union (CDU) foreign policy expert Norbert Röttgen also attacked Scholz sharply. He accused him of damaging Germany’s foreign policy during his trip, “because it costs us our partners’ trust. It does not even strengthen our reputation with the Chinese, because they only react to strength and despise weakness.”

Brain Dead

In oh so many ways.

Earlier this week in Berlin, a cyclist was declared brain dead after an ambulance couldn’t reach her on time. Berlin police blamed the delay on a traffic jam caused by a road blockade by protesters from theLast Generation group. Police filed charges against two of its activists for failing to render assistance and obstructing persons rendering assistance.

“We did not expect that an entire media system would turn against us.”

The Next Sinking Ship?

Couldn’t ask for a nicer one to sink.

Germany Urges Citizens To Leave Iran, Starts Evacuating Embassy – Amid daily antigovernment protests across Iran, Germany’s government on Thursday urged its citizens to leave the country or risk arbitrary arrest and long prison terms there.

Warning that dual nationals who have Iranian as well as German citizenship were particularly at risk, Germany’s Federal Foreign Office said in a statement that “For German nationals there is a concrete risk of being arbitrarily arrested, interrogated and sentenced to long prison terms.”

Recreational Cannabis?

Is that an Olympic discipline? Or lack of discipline, I should say?

You can never have enough recreational taxation here.

Germany moves to legalize recreational cannabis – Germany on Wednesday announced plans to legalize cannabis for recreational use. It was a move the country’s health minister said would make Germany Europe’s “most liberal cannabis legalization project” but also its “most tightly regulated market.”

Hamburg, An Islamist Hotbed?

Ausgeschlossen (no way)! German authorities would never allow such a thing.

Hamburg Mosque Reportedly a Hotbed for Iranian Propaganda – The Hamburg Islamic Center is considered the most important outpost of the Iranian regime in Germany. But since it is also reportedly used to spread the mullahs’ propaganda across Europe, calls are growing for its work to be restricted.

Germany’s domestic intelligence agency, the Office for the Protection of the Constitution, which is charged with keeping tabs on all forms of extremism, has been observing the IZH community for many years and describes it, besides the Iranian Embassy, as “Iran’s most important representation in Germany and a significant center of propaganda” in Europe.

German Greens Discover A New “Core Value”

Not freezing to death.

Reality can be a bitch.

Nuclear power: German Greens put pragmatism first – The Green Party has seen challenges to its core principles ever since it became part of Germany’s three-party government. Pragmatism is forcing painful decisions on weapons exports, fossil fuels, and nuclear power.

“Party members are absolutely livid.”