Category Archives: Hurt Feelings

What can stop it?

October 27, 2024 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Hmmm. That’s a tough one.

What can stop the rise of populism in Germany? How about taking care of the problem you created? You know, like the voters have been demanding you to do for nearly ten years now? Until the migrant madness ends, this “populism” you fear won’t.

What can stop the rise of populism in Germany and elsewhere?

Populist parties are on the rise in Germany as they are all over the world. What can open societies do to protect democracy?

“We have to realize that party democracy is losing structure and strength. Party democracy is changing into a movement democracy, which is much more volatile.”

“Everything that could go wrong went wrong, or is going wrong”

October 24, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , 1 Comment

Other than that though, alles ist in Ordnung (everything’s OK).

Germany’s lost decade: How the Fortune 500 Europe giant is flirting with long-term irrelevance – There is an elephant in the room of the 2024 edition of the Fortune 500 Europe. It’s not a crisis-riddled company or scandal-hit CEO. Rather, it’s the whole German economy.

For most of the 21st century, economists and neighboring countries have looked to Germany with admiration and envy as it managed to weather economic storms with relative ease, capitalizing on trade with growing economies and expanding the power of its industrial giants in the process.

However, a shifting world order has pulled the carpet out from underneath Germany. The industrial quirks that once helped it outgrow its European peers are fast becoming a burden, and crisis after crisis has exposed a lack of planning at the top of government.

Worry about the cost of living?

October 12, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Why should Germans worry about that?

Vater Staat (Father State) has everything under control. Wie immer (as usual).

Germans fear rising cost of living – Inflation, migration, expensive housing — these are the things that most people in Germany are worried about, according to the latest study “Germans’ Fears 2024.”

What? Even more security?

October 10, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Germany is already more secure than Fort Knox when it comes to espionage as it is.

Although it’s more like the Fort of Hard Knocks, come to think of it.

Germany to beef up security checks amid spying fears – Germany’s government has said the country will tighten security checks for staff in sensitive areas of government and business. The move comes after an increase in suspected espionage cases…

Several cases of alleged spying for Moscow have rocked Germany since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

In one case, a former German intelligence officer was accused of passing information to Russia that showed Berlin had access to details of Moscow’s mercenary operations in Ukraine.

Chinese espionage has also been a growing concern. In April, the most high-profile such case saw an aide to a German far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) member of the European Parliament arrested on suspicion of spying for Beijing.

German of the day: “nicht zufriedenstellend”

October 9, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means not satisfactory or unsatisfactory.

Year number two. Germany is on a roll.

Germany expects economy to shrink after cutting 2024 forecast – Government predicts rebound in 2025 after 0.2% decline this year.

Germany is facing its first two-year recession since the early 2000s, as the government downgraded its growth forecast for 2024, predicting a contraction of 0.2 per cent.

“The situation is not satisfactory,” Robert Habeck, economy minister, said on Wednesday.

German of the day: Discounter

September 24, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

Dicounter are grocery stores that cover the basic everyday needs of customers, offering the lowest prices.

For most items.

German supermarket finds €7M of cocaine in crates of bananas – Police did not identify the discount supermarket chain. However, they said the cocaine was found at stores in several cities across the state of North Rhine-Westphalia.

Car science isn’t rocket science, people

September 23, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Nobody wants Volkswagen’s electric cars.

The fewest German drivers do, anyway.

Driving on empty: The German government has few options to help an ailing car industry – Economy Minister Robert Habeck will meet with carmakers — but he has few weapons to stave off a car industry crisis.

Threats of historic job cuts and plant closures at German car giant Volkswagen and plunging earnings elsewhere in the industry are prompting Federal Economy Minister Robert Habeck to hold crisis talks on Monday.

But strained federal finances, fights with China over car tariffs and looming EU environmental regulations leave Habeck with few tools to help an industry which is the country’s economic backbone.

Time to say goodbye?

September 21, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

“Lieber ein Ende mit Schrecken als ein Schrecken ohne Ende.”

“Better to have an end with fright than fright without end.”

Migrants say Germany’s ‘welcome culture’ has soured as far-right parties rise – On Sunday, voters in the eastern German state of Brandenburg will vote for a new regional parliament. The anti-migrant far-right Alternative for Germany, or AfD, could win the most votes. On 1 September the AfD won a major German election for the first time, coming first in the eastern state of Thuringia. In Brandenburg polls show the AfD leading with 28%.

To undermine support for the AfD, Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s left wing-led government on Monday introduced checks for migrants on all of Germany’s borders. He also wants to increase deportations of people whose application for asylum is unsuccessful. Opposition conservatives meanwhile want the borders closed to asylum seekers altogether.

German of the day: “mach den Biden”

September 20, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means to do the Biden. To a politician.

To toss him out, in other words.

Germany’s Scholz risks Biden’s fate – If the chancellor’s SPD party loses a crucial regional election to the far right on Sunday, it could lead to his ouster from the top spot.

As German Chancellor Olaf Scholz attends the U.N. General Assembly in New York on Sunday, his political future will likely be decided at home in a regional election 6,000 kilometers away.

One more defeat at the hands of the far right this weekend will almost certainly spell the end, and Scholz could very well share the fate of U.S. President Joe Biden — thrust aside by his panicking party to make way for a candidate who can avoid a massacre in a national election next year.

German of the day: Abfallwirtschaft

September 14, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, High Art, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means waste management.

And some waste managers really mean business over here.

A work of art by the “Sprayer of Zurich” at the Museum Church of St. Cecilia in Cologne has already been restored once. Now the spray-painted skeleton by Harald Naegeli has to be renewed once again – because workers overdid it with the cleaning.