It’s Not Just US-Amerikaner Who Break The Rules

When it comes to holding free and fair elections, for example.

Rules

Germany rocks in the Dishonesty Department too. In other areasy maybe. But still.

Germany is now the biggest breaker of EU rules, according to new statistics on enforcement actions started by Brussels against member states.

The figures come despite the country’s leading role in the European project and claims from some quarters that Angela Merkel’s government dominates proceedings in the bloc.

Numbers provided to German newspaper Handelsblatt by the country’s economics ministry show the country’s government is subject to 74 infringement proceedings by the European Commission for failing to implement EU regulations properly in German law.

German Green party politician Markus Tressel told the newspaper Germany was now “bottom of the class” for following EU rules and far from the “model pupil” it was sometimes portrayed as.

You First

A spokesman for Angela Merkel’s government has announced that he expects coronavirus vaccinations to begin in Germany “in the very first days” of the new year.

Shot

And Germans being Germans and incredibly orderly and all that the same spokesman has indicated that government officials, himself included, will graciously wait their turn and let everyone else get their vaccinations first.

Merkel’s chief of staff, Helge Braun, told the Bild newspaper late Sunday that he will tell medical authorities he’s prepared to help. He said “that won’t work at every hour of the day or night as chief of staff, but at the weekend I’m prepared to join in.” He said that he and Merkel will get vaccinated “when it’s our turn.”

DIE GROSSE IMPF-DEBATTE – Welche Berufe sind zuerst dran?

France

Beautiful German weapon sale of the week.

Bombs

Because somebody has to admire them.

German defense contractor Rheinmetall on Wednesday announced the sale of MK-82-EP general purpose aircraft-dropped bombs to France and Germany.

The order, for about 2,000 bombs, totals $42.3 million, Rheinmetall said in a statement.

The 500-pound bomb bodies will be used by France’s Mirage 2000 and Rafale fighter planes, the Direction General de l’Armament said, and as the warhead of the GBU-54 Laser Joint Direct Attack Munition system for Germany’s Tornado and Eurofighter platforms.

German Of The Day: Groß

We spell it gross. That means big. Not gross. You know, our gross, as in “a gross exaggeration?”

Merz

That’s what’s calling Friedrich Merz “Germany’s Donald Trump” certainly is. A “hardline conservative” in Germany is a liberal light in US-Amerika.

But having said that, when I read from our friends over at Politico about “A combative old white man who speaks of gays and pedophiles in the same breath, dismisses gender debates as a waste of time and who can’t stand Angela Merkel could hardly be more out of step with the zeitgeist,” I ask myself, what’s not to like about this guy?

 

German Social Democrats See German Democracy Under Attack

That’s odd. It looks more like peaceful protestors are currently the ones under attack to me.

Berlin

Saskia Esken, Social Democratic Party co-leader, on Monday renewed calls from her SPD that the federal parliament adopt a law promoting democracy to help foil what she said was a far-right in Germany intent on eroding society.

“We are currently experiencing how right-wing extremists openly attack our democracy.”

“German Health Official Says Coronavirus Restrictions Are Working”

While the same German official confirms the highest daily rate of infections so far (23,648 new cases).

Lockdown

Health officials can be that way. Once everybody has been infected with Coronavirus they will recommend that the government consider lifting of the current restrictions, I assume.

Speaking to reporters in Berlin, Robert Koch Institute chief Lothar Wieler said the number of new infections has since plateaued, with 22,609 reported on Thursday – roughly the same number as a week ago. He said the fact they are not rising is good news but cautioned that it was too early to say if this is a trend.

23.648 neue Fälle: Höchstand bei Corona-Neuinfektionen.

German Of The Day: Beregnen

Zu beregnen means “to sprinkle.” I also like Sprühnebel. That means “spray mist.”

That’s what Berlin police water cannon do or use against protestors who demonstrate against the government’s COVID rules and regulations. And they just passed a new “protection” act that allows them to bypass Parliament to make additional rules and regulations. The government is apparently upset that the people are upset about this.

As lawmakers in the German parliament voted to amend the country’s Infection Protection Act, which lays out the restrictions aimed at curbing the spread of COVID-19, thousands were protesting in the capital, accusing the government of using the law to curtail basic rights and establish a “corona dictatorship.”

German Citizens Abdul And Mohamed May Know Someone Who Knows Someone Who Knows Something About A “Serious Theft” That Has Taken Place

Somewhere.

Theft

Of course, they may not know either. Hard to say. And we don’t want to jump to any conclusions here just because they are German citizens.

German police said they arrested three men Tuesday morning and are looking for two additional suspects who they believe stole around 100 royal jewels and ornaments from a museum vault in Dresden Castle last November, as about 1,600 officers are continuing to search for the stolen items and evidence.

Officials said three unnamed German citizens in their twenties were arrested in Berlin and a search warrant has been issued for the two other suspects, Abdul Majed Remmo and Mohamed Remmo, who are also in their twenties.

 

You’re Wasting Your Time And Your Money

“Germany’s imams seen as key in combating radicalization.” Right.

Immam

Although “Imam training is in the spotlight of this year’s German Islam Conference. In light of recent terror attacks, Germany’s interior minister said a new training program for German-speaking imams was “money well-spent,” those in the know have something else to report. This may be what German politicians want the German public to believe but don’t ask what Islam critic Hamed Abdel-Samad (Muslim himself) has to say about the “show.”

He has been trying for ten years to make progress addressing issues within this so-called German Islam Conference, particularly those regarding the radicalization of youth and the condition of women, but has repeatedly witnessed how precisely these issues are successfully removed from the agenda – and how its German supporters (and tax payers who finance it) do absolutely nothing about it. Now he has resigned in disgust.

Just in case you were wondering, Hamed Abdel-Samad needs bodyguards – here in Germany – and has needed them for years.

„Doch seit dieser Zeit konnten die Islamverbände alle kritischen Themen, die die kritischen Stimmen auf den Tisch gebracht haben, wie etwa das Thema Radikalisierung von jungen Muslimen oder die Stellung der Frau, aus der Tagesordnung verbannen.“

German Of The Day: Wunder

That means miracle. As in miraculous.

Voting

You know, like Joe Biden receiving 138,339 votes in an overnight vote-dump in Michigan and Donald Trump not getting one? As in zero?

Then another mysterious all-Biden vote-dump happened in Wisconsin. Biden miraculously overcame a 4.1-point Trump lead in the middle of the night thanks to vote dumps in which he got—you guessed it—100 percent of the votes and Trump got zero.

Now another miracle is taking place in Pennsylvania. In 2020 the Wunder never cease, I guess.