Those were the days…

When we could smirk our smirk with impunity.

But then the real world happened. Again.

Germany Should Have Listened to Trump – He was right about Berlin’s self-defense and risky energy dependence on Russia.

The lower house of Germany’s Parliament voted to legalize the recreational use of cannabis last week. It was a timely move. Germany’s leadership class is going to need all the mellow it can find in a world that isn’t going Germany’s way.

Political? The Berlin Film Festival?

That’s all we’ve ever been. It’s never been about film.

But we’re not just Crappy-Movies-R-Us anymore. Now we’re openly anti-Israeli. Wait. We’ve always been openly anti-Israel. But now we’re openly openly anti-Israeli.

Germany launches probe over Berlin film festival anti-Israel row – German officials will investigate how Berlin film festival winners were able to make “one-sided” comments condemning Israel’s war in Gaza at the event’s finale, a government spokeswoman says.

At Saturday’s awards ceremony, several winners were accused of making biased remarks on stage in relation to Israel’s war against Hamas, which began after the October 7 assault by the terror group that killed some 1,200 people, most of them civilians, and saw 253 taken hostage.

US filmmaker Ben Russell, wearing a Palestinian scarf, accused Israel of committing “genocide.”

“Off to a political start?”

There seems to be some misunderstanding here. The Berlin Film Festival has never not gotten off to a political start.

It moves on from there to a politcal midway point and then to a political end, for some political end, politically. It’s never been any different. That’s why the films they show here are always so crappy.

Berlin Film Festival Off to a Political Start as Three Protests Precede Opening Ceremony – After kicking off with a feisty press conference, the Berlin Film Festival got even more political as three groups of protesters descended on Potsdamer Platz before the start of opening night festivities.

German of the day: Ausladung and Ausgrenzung

Ausladung means to cancel an invitation.

Ausgrenzung means exclusion, marginalisation.

Co-head of the Berlinale justifies the cancellation with high pressure – The managing director of the Berlinale, Mariette Rissenbeek, has defended the decision to exclude AfD politicians from the opening gala. In the face of widespread criticism, it was “a very difficult gesture to say: ‘You are welcome!

AfD parliamentary group leader Brinker criticizes Berlinale decision as “exclusion.”

Everybody’s doing it!

Just look at all the “ban Trump” moves in The Banana Republic.

“Germans seeking to ban democracy to save democracy.” They’re planning the banning of the AfD. Why? Because their ranks keep growing with disguntled voters from the established parties that refuse to give these voters what they want. An end to the migrant madness, for example. The Germans have this saying: “Wer nicht hören will, muss fühlen.” That means “he who will not hear must feel.” It’s clear that the established parties’ necessary pain threshold has not yet been reached but try to avoid this pain they must.

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.”

“We must finally start deporting people on a grand scale”

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) said this months ago. He has always been ahead of his time, I guess.

That’s why the current fabricated frenzy about the AfD party allegedly planning the same thing doesn’t make much sense. But Scholz is a social democratic (socialist) goody-two-shoes kinda guy so the mass deportation he is demanding must be a nicer and more “social” kind. If he says “we have to deport people more often and faster,” nobody cares. That it’s all talk and no walk and none of these deportations will ever take place in Germany is another story altogether.

Funny what a few months and the continued success of of the AfD at the polls can make. But nothing has been orchestrated here, folks. Just move along please.

Wir müssen endlich im großen Stil abschieben.”

Ukraine and Israel top the list!

When it comes to record German weapons export recipients.

€11.7 billion ($12.8 billion) in 2023. Wow. Not bad for a pacifist country.

German weapons exports reached record high in 2023 – Germany’s government authorized more arms exports in 2023 than ever before, according to preliminary figures disclosed to lawmakers last month.

The war in Ukraine partly fueled this uptick, with exports to Kyiv more than doubling compared to 2022. The record-breaking volume follows the government’s commitment to placing tougher restrictions on arms sales, a promise from the campaign trail.

Infuriated?

Damn right.

They should have voted no. It’s just the same old talk the talk, sort of, without walking the walk.

Cease-fire in Gaza: Why Germany abstained in UN votes – Twice now Germany has abstained in a vote in the UN General Assembly that called for a cease-fire in the Middle East. Many countries around the world are infuriated by this.

“We need Germany’s support at the UN,” Israel’s ambassador to Berlin, Ron Prosor, said afterwards. It wasn’t enough, he declared, to abstain “because people are incapable of saying explicitly that Hamas is responsible for this brutal massacre.”

“Unscrupulous smugglers who brutally put people’s lives at risk?”

Do you mean the politicians like you who smuggled this migrant madness into Europe in the first place?

Germany extends checks at Polish, Czech, Swiss borders until mid-March – Measures seek to combat smuggling and limit irregular migration.

“Our fight against the unscrupulous business of smugglers, who brutally put people’s lives at risk, is successful,” Faeser said. Since mid-October, the Federal Police have arrested around 340 smugglers as part of internal border controls, she added. According to her, the number of unauthorized entries nationwide has fallen by more than 60 percent since the temporary border controls were introduced in October, from over 20,000 in October to about 7,300 in November.