Category Archives: Hurt Feelings

European Greens Against Huge Investments In Green Technologies

February 8, 2023 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

Because they’re not the right shade of Green. They’re not European Green, in other words.

They’re more of a Greenback shade of Green. And this makes them Green with envy. Or maybe it’s more like Green about the gills.

German Vice Chancellor and Economy Minister Robert Habeck was holding talks in Washington on Tuesday focused on the controversial US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), which foresees huge investments in green technologies.

A large portion of the Inflation Reduction Act, somewhere in the region of $370 billion (roughly €350 billion at current exchange rates), is earmarked for spending and subsidies designed to support the green transition in the US.

For instance, it includes government incentives for consumers to buy electric vehicles, but only if the vehicles and batteries were produced either in the US or a country with a trade deal with the US.

He Was Only Able To Run Over The Guy’s Foot?

February 7, 2023 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

That’s pretty schwach (weak, a weak performance).

Hey, what’s the big deal? When you’re one of the “last generation,” you’ve already got one foot in the grave.

“Last generation” blocks traffic in Berlin: motorist apparently drives over foot of climate activist – The RBB reported on Monday evening that a car driver had run over the foot of a climate activist at Messedamm and published a corresponding video. On it, two people can be seen dragging two climate activists off the street. Then a white car drives up and hits the foot of an activist sitting on the street. When the activist shouts loudly, the vehicle reverses.

German Of The Day: Rezessionsängste

January 30, 2023 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

That means recession fears.

German economy unexpectedly shrinks in Q4, reviving spectre of recession – The German economy unexpectedly shrank in the fourth quarter, data showed on Monday, a sign that Europe’s largest economy may be entering a much-predicted recession, though likely a shallower one than originally feared.

Gross domestic product decreased 0.2% quarter on quarter in adjusted terms, the federal statistics office said. A Reuters poll of analysts had forecast the economy would stagnate.

We Germans Would Never Twist Words Around Like That

January 29, 2023 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

So you sneaky Russkies better stop accusing us of doing so.

After all, just because our foreign minister said “we are fighting a war against Russia” doesn’t mean that we are fighting a war against Russia. Quit twisting her words around like that already. She’s a diplomat. And a Green one too (in more ways than one). And now you’ve offended us.

Germany accuses Russia of twisting minister’s war comments for ‘propaganda’ – Russia has twisted comments by Germany’s foreign minister about the war in Ukraine for propaganda purposes, a German foreign ministry spokesperson said on Friday, stressing Berlin’s position that NATO must not become party to the conflict.

German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock riled Moscow with comments at an event in Strasbourg on Tuesday, when, speaking in English, she said that “we are fighting a war against Russia, and not against each other.”

German Of The Day: Eskalation

January 25, 2023 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

That means escalation.

Remember this decision when we look back from the future (I’m an optimist).

US and Germany ready to send tanks to Ukraine – After months of reluctance, the US and Germany reportedly plan to send tanks to Ukraine, in what Kyiv hopes will be a game-changer on the battlefield.

US President Joe Biden’s administration is expected to announce plans to send at least 30 M1 Abrams tanks.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has also reportedly decided to send at least 14 Leopard 2 tanks. He is set to speak in parliament on Wednesday morning.

Soaring Interest Rates, Weakening Economy, Record Inflation…

January 9, 2023 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

What’s not to like?

Oh, yeah. Commercial real estate is taking a dive now too.

German Real Estate Deals Plunged 50% in Fourth Quarter, BNP Says

Germany’s real estate market took a deep hit in the fourth quarter as investors shied away from deals on the back of soaring financing costs.

Total investments in the country’s commercial property sector only reached €9.9 billion ($10.6 billion) in the last three months of 2022, a decline of 50% compared with the five-year average for the period, according to a report released by BNP Paribas’ real estate unit on Monday. The development is largely due to soaring interest rates, a weakening economy and record inflation, it said.

Exploding Fireworks Louder Than German Army Ammunition

January 3, 2023 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, High Art, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

If the Bundeswehr had any, that is.

German defense minister lambasted over NYE Ukraine message – German media has mocked a “tone-deaf” video put out by Defense Minister Christine Lambrecht. She was slammed for discussing the war in Ukraine as people set off fireworks.

“The speech about the war with New Year’s Eve firecrackers in the background only crowns her series of embarrassments.”

Tanks For Nothing

January 1, 2023 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

And defense for free (from Dire Straits, sort of).

Our German Ally: Tanking.

Putin has given any number of reasons (all of them nonsense) to justify Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. One of them was that Russia was “threatened” by NATO’s expansion. That is, to put it mildly, unconvincing. Russia’s grumbling about Ukrainian independence dates back to the Yeltsin era, long before (the special case of the vanished East Germany aside) NATO had expanded to include any countries in the former Soviet bloc.

A more convincing explanation (so far as the Kremlin’s attitude to NATO was concerned) was that Putin had seen the alliance’s weakness and concluded that it would present Moscow with no problems in the event that Russia took back control over its neighbor. An important reason why the Kremlin might have seen things that way was the position of Germany, a supposedly key member of NATO, but one that had a distinctly, uh, nuanced view of what membership of the alliance meant.

One obvious sign of that was the country’s neglect of its armed forces throughout Angela Merkel’s dismal chancellorship.

German Of The Day: Maulwurf

December 26, 2022 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

That means mole.

German politicians hail capture of suspected Russian ‘mole’ – The capture of an alleged Russian spy in Germany’s intelligence agencies has been called a “wake-up call” by politicians who are concerned by the threat of hybrid warfare.

“The fact that there are Russian espionage activities in Germany is well known and hardly surprising. But if now even in the ranks of the BND an employee is said to have spied for Russia, then this would be a completely new and frightening quality. Of course, this also raises the question of the effectiveness of the BND’s own security.”