German Commitment And A Couple Of Bucks Will Get You A Cup Of Coffee
“Germany wholeheartedly supports @NATO. We will stand by our commitments. True solidarity is measured in terms of commitment, not Euros.”
NATO’s German Problem: Who Needs Soldiers or Weapons?
Berlin had promised to hike expenditures to two percent of GDP by 2024—subsequently downgraded to 1.5 percent—but new budget figures indicated that the real amount would be lower still. Germany’s government evidently lacks the political will to put Europe’s defense first.
I love reading these articles but I’ve lived here quite a while so there’s no need for me to spend much time doing so. People who don’t live here should really come to understand that the Germans have absolutely not intention of fulfilling their NATO “commitments.” Not unless they are forced to do so at gunpoint, I mean.
“It is simply unacceptable for Europe’s largest economy to continue to ignore the threat of Russian aggression and neglect its own self-defense and our common defense.”
German Of The Day: Auslieferung
That means extradition.
You know, as in Julian Assange arrested in London – USA demands extradition?
Julian Assange in London festgenommen – USA verlangen Auslieferung
Bundeswehr Update: This One Doesn’t Fly, Either
The Bundeswehr doesn’t have any money, remember?
But the little it has it burns as fast as it can. Among numerous other spending scandals, this one went originally like: The German navy will continue operations with its Lockheed Martin P-3C Orion maritime patrol aircraft until 2035, with Berlin having signed a $158 million contract for modernisation work to be performed over the next five years.
Now the word is that the costs have run out of control. What would the Bundeswehr do without Miss Management herself (Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen)? She’s that good. Just like her buddy Angela Merkel, she’s too big to fail.
Es werde “kaum gelingen, alle Flugzeuge bis Ende 2025” flottzumachen, urteilt der Bundesrechnungshof.
Real American Boys
Thank you, Dirk, Uwe and Detlef!
Watching Dirk run/stumble around the American Airlines Center on Friday night against Memphis in a glorified preseason game was bittersweet, and an ideal reminder there is no Dirk without the two Germans who came long before him.
Mavericks fans, when you thank Dirk, be sure to nod and clap for Uwe Blab and Detlef Schrempf. That duo didn’t make Dirk, but they made what he did possible.
“When I was a kid growing up in Germany, I was a complete outcast,” said Blab, who is 57 and lives in Dripping Springs and works in Austin. “I was 7-foot-2, 180 pounds. I was a freak. No girls. Nothing. Many negative comments, and just this general attitude when you walked into a place. I came to America, and it was, ‘Ohhhhhhh — look at that guy.’ I had a new life here. I was totally accepted.”
German Of The Day: Unsicherheit
That means uncertainty. You know, like economic uncertainty?
German exports fell by 1.3% in February compared with the month before, the Federal Statistics Office said on Monday. The figure represents the biggest drop in export revenue for a year…
Economists say that uncertainties surrounding Britain’s exit from the EU, the ongoing trade dispute between the US and China as well as weakening demand for industrial products are weighing on economies across the world.
“Die Ungewissheit aufgrund der vielen ungelösten Konflikte schlägt sich in den Auftragsbüchern nieder.”
German Of The Day: Enteignung
That means confiscation or dispossession. You know, like confiscating private property?
And the German Greens hold this to be denkbar – another cool German word meaning conceivable or possible.
After all, the world must be fair and if rising property rents in cities like Berlin – caused by city governments like Berlin (Social Democrats and Greens for decades) – are creating hardship for the 85 percent (!) of Berliners who don’t own property – the government does everything it can to discourage owning property here – then the government that created this mess will simply confiscate the private property of those currently developing new housing and… And what? Give it to the poor? Been there, done that. We all know how that turns out. And who foots the bill. Robin Hoodlums never learn. They have no intention of learning.
Thousands took to the streets of Berlin on Saturday in protest against rising property rents and called for properties of large-scale landlords with more than 3,000 houses to be taken over by the government.
“Das Grundgesetz sieht Enteignungen zum Allgemeinwohl ausdrücklich vor.”
Fiona E.
German Of The Day: Abkühlung
That means cooling or cooling off.
You know, like German growth predicted to stall during 2019 in significant Abkühlung?
Germany’s economy could experience a “significant cooling” in 2019 and could see sharply lower growth this year, the country’s leading economic institutes have warned in a report compiled for Germany’s economics ministry.
Forecasts for German growth were revised significantly downwards in a ‘Joint Economic Forecast’ collated by several prominent German economic research institutes and published Thursday, with economists predicting a meager 0.8% this year.
This is more than one percentage point lower than a prediction for 1.9% made in a joint economic forecast in fall 2018.
“The long-term upswing of the German economy has come to an end.”
Germany Is NATO’s Biggest Freeloader
That was a Washington Post headline, not mine.
There’s a German word for freeloader, by the way. Sounds worse in German, too.
As Nato commemorates its 70th anniversary in Washington this week, Germany seems to be labouring mightily to reassure the 29-member alliance that it will never threaten anyone militarily again — because it is in fact its own worst enemy.
How else can you qualify an ally that has announced it won’t be meeting its own pledge to increase defence spending to 1.5 per cent of gross domestic product by 2024, even when it has formally committed to a target of 2 per cent, like everybody else?
Eines kann man Donald Trump nicht vorwerfen: Dass er mit seiner Meinung hinter dem Berg halten würde.
