Category Archives: Humility

German Of The Day: Kehrtwendung

March 25, 2021 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Humility, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means doing an about-face. Although not necessarily while saving face.

Merkel

The natives are getting restless. They’re starting to get really pissed off about these ceaseless lockdowns and some are actually daring to raise their voices. German industry and voters are picking up the phones. Elections are approaching. Even Angela Merkel is feeling the heat these days. Hey, it couldn’t have happened to a nicer Empress of Europe.

COVID: Angela Merkel forced to think again on Easter – German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s announcement of a U-turn came less than 48 hours after a decision to send the country into a strict five-day lockdown.

Angela Merkel Isn’t Quite Finished With Her Party Yet

March 17, 2021 By in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Humility, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Or with her country, for that matter. But it won’t be much longer.

CDU

Merkel’s Conservatives Mired in Scandal and Incompetence…

The Union has been in turmoil ever since it became known that to conservative lawmakers are thought to have enriched themselves with business deals involving medical protective equipment – at a time when workers across the country were fearful of losing their jobs, when the self-employed were facing ruin and when doctors and nurses were risking their health. Political representatives benefitting from a crisis that has gripped the entire country is not a good look…

A majority of the population, though, might be inclined to overlook such missteps if things were actually working. If people had the feeling that the government was doing its job protecting the population from the virus and ably leading the country through the pandemic. But that is not the case.

Die Union rutscht in einer Umfrage um vier Prozentpunkte ab und hat den positiven Effekt der Corona-Krise wieder verspielt. In der Kanzlerfrage läge Laschet hinter Grünen-Politiker Habeck – aber vor einem anderen direkten Konkurrenten.

We’re From Your Leftist Government

March 2, 2021 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Humility, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

And we’re here to help.

Mieten

As usual, everything Berlin’s “red-red-green” city government touches turns to Scheiße. As usual, the media clones pretends that this is somehow news.

Berlin’s Rent Controls Are Proving to Be a Disaster – A year ago, the leftist government of Germany’s capital region imposed central planning on the city’s housing market. That was a bad move.

A year ago, a rent cap took effect in the city that was unprecedented in Germany. For all apartments built before 2014, rents were frozen at whatever they were on Jun. 18, 2019. Tenants in those units can also force landlords to lower rents defined as “excessive…”

These data confirm what economists had warned about — and what’s been observed in other cities that dabbled in rent controls, such as San Francisco or Cambridge, Massachusetts. The caps represent a windfall to one group of tenants: those, whether rich or poor, who are already ensconced in regulated apartments. Simultaneously, they hurt all other groups — especially young people and those coming from other cities — by all but shutting them out of the market.

But China Is Germany’s Friend

February 24, 2021 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Humility, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

And can do no wrong. And friends don’t intimidate Hong Kong activists on other friend’s soil.

China

And all that.

China has tried to intimidate Hong Kong residents living in Germany since pro-democracy protests broke out in the city two years ago, the German interior ministry said in a letter to a lawmaker published on Tuesday.

The letter, sent to the head of parliament’s human rights committee, Gyde Jensen, in response to a request for information on the subject, could add to pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel to take a firmer line toward China over human rights.

“Since the start of the protests in Hong Kong, increasing attempts by Chinese state actors in Germany to influence public opinion in favour of the Chinese government as well as actions against supporters of the protests have been identified,” the ministry said in the letter, first published in the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper and reviewed on Tuesday by Reuters.

“I am unfortunately sceptical that the mechanisms used by our security agencies are sufficient to effectively protect those affected.”

PS: By the way, there is no Chinese virus in Germany either. There is a “British mutation” of the Chinese virus that came from China but isn’t a Chinese virus but there is no Chinese virus per se.

 

Infectious Number Variants Increasing Numbers More Infectiously

February 22, 2021 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Humility, Hurt Feelings, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

COVID numbers in Germany seem to have mutated and are now on the rise again. Thank goodness. They had been dropping for weeks.

School

Otherwise everybody would have to start earning a living again. I know, let’s compromise. We’ll send all the kids back to school.

Germany’s COVID infections rise again – The increase comes just as schools are scheduled to reopen. The rise has been driven by new, more-infectious variants of the coronavirus.

The Robert Koch Institute for infectious diseases reported 7,676 new cases on Sunday, up 1,562 from one week ago. The key seven-day incidence rate increased to 60.2 across the country, up from 57.7 a day earlier.

 

How To Identify Hackers

December 30, 2020 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hi-tech, Humility, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

They always wear dark leather gloves while hacking.

Gloves

And they also knock out the wrong news organizations. Hasn’t anybody ever told them about CNN, the New York Times, the Washington Post and all the rest?

Germany: ‘Colossal’ cyberattack knocks out Funke news group – Hackers knocked out one of Germany’s biggest news organizations over the Christmas holiday. Such criminal attacks, which often come with ransom demands, have become a lucrative business model.

Loser Of The Year

December 14, 2020 By in Hard Facts, Humility, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

That’s how a major German news magazine labeled these two (in German, Loser is also used for the plural form).

Loser

In his memoirs, Biden bluntly describes his disappointment with the German chancellor, who in his opinion was far too lax with Putin. In the book “Promise Me, Dad,” he mocks Merkel’s “passive voice” while at the same time praising his own speech as his having been his best ever. A meeting on the margins of the event with Merkel and the Ukrainian president apparently wasn’t particularly harmonious, either. “Merkel seemed frustrated with me,” Biden wrote of the meeting.

 

German “Passionate Fan Culture”

November 13, 2020 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Humility Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Only without the passion. It’s a new, I dunno, twist or something.

Loew

Germany beat the Czech Republic 1-0 in a friendly on Wednesday but the average domestic TV ratings came in below “Cash for Rarities,” a show about selling antiques. The average audience of 5.42 million was the lowest for a prime-time men’s national team game this century.

That’s unsettling for a country which prides itself on its passionate fan culture. The joy from winning the World Cup in 2014 turned to despair during Germany’s group-stage exit in 2018. Now apathy reigns amid a mediocre Nations League campaign.

Horst Lichter schlägt das DFB-Team.

Never Forget: Europeans Would Overwhelmingly Vote for Joe Biden

November 2, 2020 By in Habitudes, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Humility, Humor, Hurt Feelings, Hype, Hypochondria, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

And we want to be just like them.

Europe

A majority of 11,000 residents across five countries in Europe—Germany, Italy, Spain, France and Great Britain—say they are watching the U.S. presidential election closely, and are very much in favor of Biden taking the White House Tuesday. The BVA pollster group found Germans are watching the U.S. contest most carefully, with 85 percent saying they are very interested in the the November 3 outcome compared to about 70 percent in the other four nations.

Only 8 percent of Germans said they would vote for Trump if it was them casting ballots across America in four days.

If Only The United States Could Do Everything Right Too

October 29, 2020 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Humility, Hurt Feelings, Hype, Hypochondria, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Remember: Corona only spikes in the United States because, well, we do everything wrong.

Light

Not so in ze Europe. Take Germany, for example. They’ve done everything right so far (face masks, social distancing, strict restrictions, etc). The Germans even did a big lockdown already, just a few months back. And now, because the first lockdown worked so well and was so much fun, I guess, Germany is going to lockdown again. Only this time they refer to it as a “lockdown light.” Light as in restaurants, bars, hotels, gyms etc. will no longer have any guests and professional sports events will be held without spectators. And everybody stays home, of course. Sound vaguely familiar? It should. It is. But maybe this light lockdown will be more effective than that heavy one they did first. It’s all a question of having a positive attitude. Something Germans are world famous for.

Germany to go into circuit-break lockdown as coronavirus surges – Germany will impose an emergency month-long lockdown that includes the closure of restaurants, gyms and theatres to reverse a spike in coronavirus cases that risks overwhelming hospitals, Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Wednesday.