Category Archives: Hurt Feelings

The money…

July 18, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

She is all gone, señor.

Let’s see what Ukraine’s biggest, not second biggest military donor does next year.

Germany plans to halve military aid for Ukraine – Germany is planning to nearly halve military aid for Ukraine next year, from around €8bn (£6.7bn; $8.7bn) to around €4bn, according to a draft budget approved by the government.

Finance Minister Christian Lindner said Ukraine’s financing was “secure for the foreseeable future” due to a G7 group of rich nations scheme to raise $50bn from interest on frozen Russian assets.

Germany is Ukraine’s second biggest military donor, after the US. In 2024, Berlin’s budget for Kyiv is set at nearly €7.5bn.

German of the day: Attentat-Komplott

July 13, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means assassination plot.

German shock at reported Russian assassination plot – German political figures have reacted angrily to a report that Russia had plotted to kill the head of Germany’s biggest arms company Rheinmetall, Armin Papperger...

The company is one of the world’s biggest producers of ammunition and has become key to supplying Ukraine with arms, armoured vehicles and other military equipment.

Rheinmetall recently opened a tank repair plant in western Ukraine. Last month, it signed an agreement with Ukraine to expand co-operation in the coming years, including a joint venture to produce artillery shells.

“To our surprise,”

July 7, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

You didn’t want me to lecture you in person.

So I’ll just have to lecture from here at home.

Diplomatic tensions are escalating between Germany and Hungary after Budapest canceled a meeting between Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó and his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, that had been planned for Monday in Budapest.

The unusual last-minute cancellation — tantamount to a diplomatic éclat — comes after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other EU leaders strongly criticized a trip by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to Moscow, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

Baerbock had planned to raise the issue of Orbán’s meeting with Putin during her visit to Budapest on Monday. But “to our surprise, the Hungarian side canceled” the appointment with Szijjártó “at short notice,” a German foreign ministry official told reporters late Friday.

Peace bunkers are out

July 2, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

Now “war bunkers” are in. Again.

Germany plans new war bunkers – German cities are calling for new bunkers to be built, to protect the population in the event of war. But critics argue there’s no point.

There might be no better way to gauge a country’s anxieties than by checking in on the companies building panic rooms and private bunkers.

Business has been going worryingly well for BSSD Defence, the Berlin-based company that builds “protection room systems” for private, business and military applications. As well as a range of home security equipment, the company offers everything from “pop-up panic rooms” for around €20,000 ($21,400) to full-scale bunkers for close to €200,000.

A self-inflicted hostage-taking situation?

June 14, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Why is it that big German automakers are worried about Chinese retaliation?

Because they voluntarily put themselves in the position to be retaliated against. Think Germany’s voluntary dependency on Russian gas recently. That didn’t work out very well either. But for whatever reason, this is what Germans do.

Germany launches 11th-hour bid to avert trade war with China – Germany wants the EU to set tariffs on electric vehicles at a low level to avoid severe retaliation from Beijing…

Germany’s position was “problematic,” he said: While big German automakers still entertain good ties with Beijing, that’s not necessarily the case for smaller businesses, meaning “the German economy as a whole has an interest in a more assertive policy towards China.”

None of the experts can figure out why…

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

It’s inexplicable. Why on earth would Europeans by voting for the right?

Something seems to bothering the electorate that we professionals in power have not been able to understand. Oh well. I suppose it’s one of those mysteries we will never be able to solve…

In Germany, the EU’s most populous nation, projections indicated that voters had not been dissuaded by the AfD’s scandals as it rose to 16.5%, up from 11% in 2019. In comparison, the combined result for the three parties in the German governing coalition barely topped 30%.

Insurrection, German style

May 21, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Humor, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Boy oh boy. that was one close call for German democracy itself.

Or something. Yawn. This “coup” is so embarrassing it’s cute. A cute coup. It’s kind of like US-Amerika‘s January 6, only dopier. If you can imagine that.

Germany coup plot trial begins amid high security – Self-styled Prince Heinrich XIII among alleged ringleaders of plan for violent overthrow of state…

A total of 26 people are on trial – a 27th, a man in his 70s, died recently in hospital in Frankfurt – and the three cases are expected to go on for a year or more. Gundula Fehns-Böer, a spokesperson for Frankfurt’s regional court, said: “It’s a challenge for us all, but we’ll sit here for as long as we have to sit.”

The alleged plotters were arrested in December 2022, when heavily armed forces stormed houses, flats, offices and a remote hunting lodge. Investigators had surveilled the group in the previous few months. Among the arrests made were a leading member of the QAnon conspiracy theory organisation, a clairvoyant, a dentist and an amateur pilot.

If you can’t beat them, ban them

May 14, 2024 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Don’t listen to what the electorate actually wants (an end to the migrant madness), the thing that forced them into the arms of the AfD in the first place.

Just label them “undemocratic” (the votes the AfD gets apparently aren’t as democratic as those of the established parties) and then bump them off.

Germany: Court says far-right AfD is suspected of extremism – The move, which upholds a lower-court ruling the party had challenged, means intelligence services can continue to monitor AfD activities and communications…

For years discussions about a ban have surfaced regularly. Critics of the idea say that would simply play into the AfD’s hands by boosting its narrative of victimisation.

Legally it would also be difficult, time-consuming and possibly be rejected by the constitutional court.

But with each new scandal involving the AfD, calls grow louder from all mainstream parties to investigate whether there are at least sufficient grounds to try.

Did someone finally give the German media Brain Police a wake-up pill?

May 9, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Or are they finally figuring out where the real danger (and exploitable fear) lies?

A German dilemma: Everybody here knows what everybody here is really worried about but the only ones openly saying it are the evil “Nazi” AfD party. It’s called painting yourself into a corner.

Germans fear migration more than climate change, study finds – Europeans — especially Germans — are increasingly keen on curbing immigration and are less focused on climate change, according to a study by a Danish-based think tank.