German Of The Day: Hoffnung Stirbt Zuletzt

That means hope dies last.

Tesla Giga Berlin: Minister still hopeful for 2021 launch despite final approval delay – Tesla Giga Berlin is still waiting for final environmental approval from Brandenburg’s State Office for the Environment (LfU). Despite this, the state’s Minister of Economics, Jörg Steinbach, remains hopeful that Tesla will produce its first vehicle in Giga Berlin by the end of this year.

Bureaucracy is the key. The key to stopping anything from ever getting done. And German bureaucracy is made in Germany, after all. There is a reputation to keep up.

Mass Corona-Testing Fraud

Everybody’s doing it!

Highly inaacurate for those being tested and highly expensive for the taxpayers (and the taxpayers’ children, and their children, etc.) who are financing it, these tests are at least “free,” if you get my drift.

A number of high-profile cases of fraud, and enduring questions over the accuracy of antigen (also known as lateral-flow) tests, have prompted criticism of health minister Jens Spahn’s scheme for triggering a free-market free-for-all, something Die Welt newspaper called a “testing gold-rush”.

“It’s an absurd system, and very atypical for Germany”, said Matthias Orth, of the Institute of Laboratory Medicine at Stuttgart’s Marienhospital. Earlier this year, Germany’s disease control agency reported that one commonly used antigen test – which only detects Covid-19 cases on days the viral load is highest – had missed 61% of asymptomatic infections at the emergency ward of a Stuttgart’s Katharinenhospital clinic.

German Of The Day: Plagiat

That means plagiarism.

Ask Green candidate Annalena Baerbock. She’ll give you a better definition. After copying it out of somebody elses’s book somewhere, that is. Plagiarism is the practice of using or copying someone else’s idea or work and pretending that you thought of it or created it. A plagiarism is an idea or a piece of writing or music that has been secretly copied from someone else’s work. This is a very popular pastime with German politicians these days. A real craze.

German Greens say plagiarism claims are ‘character assassination’ – Party hires prominent libel lawyer to defend its lead candidate, Annalena Baerbock, against allegations.

Kneel Down Before Me

“All of these kingdoms I will give to you, if only you will kneel down before me and worship me.”

Euro 2020: Germany to join England in kneeling protest – Germany intends to join England in a kneeling protest before their Euro 2020 last 16 match. The captains of both teams are also set to wear special armbands for the game.

Germans Still Waiting For More Effective Knife Control Legislation

German authorities are still puzzled by the mysterious deaths of three women who were killed in a knife attack.

They do know that “someone with a migrant background” and his knife were involved in the killings but because neither this someone with a migrant background nor his religion with a migrant background can be held responsible for such unpleasant realities they are now focussing in on the knife itself. “What is needed is more effectiv knife control legislation,” is most likely what German politicians are about to announce.

Germany: Würzburg holds vigil for knife attack victims – At an emotional memorial service, Würzburg mourned the deaths of three women who were killed in a knife attack. With the motive still unclear, officials urged against responding to the attack with “hate and revenge.”

Germans Feel They Are Still Not Paying Enough

To save the world from man-made CO2. Take more of our money, please!

And this in a country that already takes about half of what you earn.

German citizens’ assembly calls for concrete climate action ahead of election – A representative group of citizens has agreed on recommendations to help the German government cut emissions and fairly achieve its climate goals.

With Friends Like That…

You don’t need Feinde.

German of the day: Feinde. That means enemies.

US has ‘no better friend’ than Germany, says US top diplomat Antony Blinken – US Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited Berlin for talks with German Chancellor Merkel and Foreign Minister Maas. He was eager to impress the importance of good US-German relations.

“I think it’s fair to say that the United States has no better partner, no better friend in the world than Germany.” Fair, maybe. But not true.

Amerika is on its back! I mean, back.

It’s Called Bürokratie

Or bureaucracy, if you prefer. That’s what’s happening to Tesla’s German gigafactory.

Nobody does it better, or worse, than the Germans.

Explainer: What’s happening with Tesla’s $7 billion German ‘gigafactory’?

Next Thursday, July 1, was supposed to be a day of celebration for Tesla: the opening of its self-styled “gigafactory” in the tranquil German municipality of Gruenheide, just outside Berlin.

But thanks to fierce environmental resistance, red tape and planning tweaks it is completely unclear when the first vehicles will roll off the production line of the electric carmaker’s first European factory.

Tesla has already pushed back the expected opening to late 2021. Yet the environmental agency in Brandenburg, the state where the 5.8 billion euro ($6.9 billion) plant is being built, has still not given final approval – meaning a further delay cannot be ruled out, even into 2022.

But How Is This Possible?

Germany has some of the strictest gun control laws in the world. And if you manage to get a gun illegally, shooting people is also highly illegal here.

It just doesn’t make any sense. I know! Make the German gun control and shooting people laws even more illegal! Let’s see which political party is the first to demand this, shall we?

German police are searching for a gunman who shot and killed a man and a woman in Espelkamp, a small northern town near the city of Bielefeld.

Police have not hinted at any motive for the shooting, but they say there is no threat to the public…

The popular German tabloid Bild, quoting unnamed sources, says police are now negotiating with the gunman to get him to surrender.