Those are not real elves

And that’s not the real Santa.

Fake news. They really think we’re stupid or something.

3 elves are cycling from the German town of St. Nikolaus to Finland’s Santa Claus Village – Three postal workers set off Saturday on their nearly 3,000-kilometer (1,860-mile) bicycle journey from St. Nikolaus, Germany, to the small town of Rovaniemi, Finland, which is home to Santa Claus Village, according to German news agency dpa.

The cyclists are traveling north to bring letters and Christmas wish lists addressed to Santa Claus from St. Nikolaus, in Germany’s Saarland state, to the winter-themed amusement park perched on the edge of the Arctic Circle.

German of the day: Inszenierung

That means staging, enactment, orchestration.

This Gaza photographer stages Hamas propaganda – Emaciated children, desperate mothers, and people begging for food with empty pots: these photos from Gaza circulate around the world. They are moving millions of people and influencing politics worldwide.

However, research by the Süddeutsche Zeitung newspaper now calls these images into question: Are some of the pictures from Gaza deliberately staged—and part of a propaganda strategy by Hamas terrorists?

The hunger is (almost always) real – but the images are often not entirely so. For example, a widely circulated photo recently showed desperate people in front of a food distribution point on a truck. Opposite them: photographer Anas Zayed Fteiha, a freelance “journalist” working on behalf of the Turkish news agency Anadolu.

Possible problem: The scene, also captured by other photographers, shows mainly adult men waiting for food—and getting it.

We’re number one! We’re number one!

20 days a year, suckers. On average.

They don’t call Germany the sick man of Europe for nothing.

Germans are declared ‘world champions in sick leave’ by country’s leading insurer as it reveals workers take average of 20 days off each year…

‘The German economy won’t recover with sick employees, but on the contrary with better working conditions.’ 

Germans were calling in sick long before Gen Z

It’s a Volkssport (popular national pastime) here. It’s just what Germans do.

People resent living in a political system that takes at least half of what you earn and they “pay it back” every opportunity they get. And twenty sick days a year is nothing. Berlin cops and firemen, for instance, are “sick” more than twice that amount every year.

German bosses are blaming the country’s economic woes on ‘work-shy’ Gen Z calling in sick nearly 20 times a year – Germany is in a structural crisis—with falling exports, soaring energy prices, and weakening competitiveness in its most important sectors. But according to the bosses of Germany’s biggest businesses, the real problem is its workers taking too much sick leave.

Several German employers have lamented a record-breaking year for absences linked to illness.

Booking “financing of transport infrastructure” as defense spending?

To “meet” their pledge of keeping defense spending at 2 percent of GDP?

Clever of the Germans. How refreshingly dishonest. And by that I mean openly dishonest.

Berlin wants to pump defense spending numbers by including military mobility – Germany wants to keep defense spending at 2 percent of GDP, but budget constraints make that difficult.

The cash-strapped German government is looking at how it can include the financing of transport infrastructure used by the military into its defense spending to meet NATO’s spending target.

“War” is the past tense of is

In German. “Was,” in English.

So that headline down there doesn’t make much sense – in my mind. The German army was never “was ready” and never will be.

Germany aims for a ‘war-ready’ military – It’s the most momentous shift in German defense priorities since 2011.

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine is forcing Germany to turn its military into a powerful and well-financed fighting force focused on defending the country and NATO allies, Germany’s chancellor said on Friday.

“Today, nobody can seriously doubt what we in Germany have been avoiding for a long time, namely that we need a powerful Bundeswehr,” Olaf Scholz said on the second day of a political-military conference presenting the deep change in Berlin’s strategic thinking.

“Our peace order is in danger,” he warned, also mentioning the war between Hamas and Israel and adding that Germany needs “a long-term, permanent change of course.”

Haven’t had one of these in ages…

One of these fake animal sightings in the summer in Germany (search above for “Sommerloch” or “silly season”).

You know, these “scary” none-news news reports used as filler during summer vacation season (journalists are allowed to go on vacation here, it seems)? This time it’s a lion on the loose or something.

Germany: Suspected lioness on the loose outside Berlin – Residents of a neighborhood near the German capital have been told to stay indoors while authorities search for what they believe is a lioness on the loose.

German State Media Want Their Own “Insurrection” So Bad

They can taste it. And they’re perfectly willing to make theirs even more ridiculous than that first way cool media construct in evil US-Amerika.

Admittedly, a hard thing to do but I wouldn’t putsch it past them. Enjoy, folks. Very entertaining. I coup watch them all day.

The bizarre far-right coup attempt in Germany, explained by an expert – Understanding the Reichsbürger, a QAnon-influenced radical movement that just tried to make a minor noble the new king of Germany.

Brexit Was Yesterday

Let’s let bygones be bygones. We’re friends again, right?

Now that we need to come groveling for your natural gas?

Germany keen to discuss natural gas pact with UK amid supply risk – Officials interested in deal that would allow two countries to bail each other out in event of shortages.

Such an agreement could be mutually beneficial for both London and Berlin, the German civil servant in charge of rationing in the case of a supply crisis told the Guardian in an interview.

Because They’re Homeopathetic

And mystics. Germans are. Until reality bites them in the you-know-what. Keep an eye on the current Green renewable utopia madness grippng the country, if you don’t believe me. And what will become of it in the coming months and years.

Homeopathy Doesn’t Work. So Why Do So Many Germans Believe in It?

How Natalie Grams, who once abandoned her medical education to study alternative therapies, became Germany’s most prominent homeopathy skeptic.

Then one day in 2013 at a nearby lake, Grams fell violently ill with a viral infection…