Well, if there was ever any doubt…

November 26, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

You must NEVER relax the debt brake, Germany.

Relax Germany’s debt brake, says Angela Merkel – Former chancellor’s memoirs back reform of borrowing cap that she introduced into constitution.

Former chancellor Angela Merkel has called for Germany to relax its “debt brake”, in a sign of the growing political pressure to overhaul a borrowing cap that many economists say is too inflexible. 

Merkel, who served as chancellor between 2005 and 2021 and introduced the debt brake into Germany’s constitution, made the proposal for change in her autobiography Freedom: Memories 1954-2021.

There’s an app for that

November 25, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , 1 Comment

For the bunker nearest you.

Germany draws up list of bunkers amid Russia tensions – App planned for public to find emergency shelter in places including underground train stations and car parks…

A digital directory of bunkers and emergency shelters will be drawn up so people can find them quickly using a planned phone app. People would also be encouraged to create protective shelters in their homes by converting basements and garages, the spokesperson told a press briefing.

She’s denying it

November 21, 2024 By in Hard Facts, History Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

“I never died,” said the dead woman.

“It never happened.”

Ursula Haverbeck, German far-right activist repeatedly convicted for Holocaust denial, dies at 96 – Ursula Haverbeck, a prominent German far-right activist who accumulated a string of convictions for denying the Holocaust, has died. She was 96.

Haverbeck died on Wednesday, her lawyer Wolfram Nahrath told German news agency dpa on Thursday.

Haverbeck repeatedly asserted that Auschwitz was just a work camp. In fact, historians say at least 1.1 million Jews were murdered there by the Nazis.

The hostage collection process has begun!

November 20, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

You’ve got to have chips to play sabotage poker.

Russia arrests German citizen on sabotage charges – The Russian Federal Security Service said a German man was involved in organizing an explosion in Kaliningrad and had returned to Russia “to organize acts of sabotage…”

Russian authorities have repeatedly arrested foreign citizens on hotly disputed charges, including in several incidents that Western governments have denounced as false or trumped-up cases.

Sabotage?

November 19, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Really?

Germany suspects sabotage behind severed undersea cables – German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius has said damage to two undersea cables in the Baltic Sea looks like an act of sabotage and a “hybrid action”, without knowing who is to blame.

A 1,170km (730-mile) telecommunications cable between Finland and Germany was severed in the early hours of Monday, while a 218km internet link between Lithuania and Sweden’s Gotland Island stopped working on Sunday.

The incidents came at a time of heightened tension with Russia and Pistorius said “nobody believes that these cables were cut accidentally”.

Maybe this will help me keep my job…

November 16, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , Leave a comment

I know. I’ll call Vladimir Putin and ask him to stop the war and pull out of Ukraine.

That’s never been tried before.

Zelensky accuses German chancellor of opening ‘Pandora’s box’ with Putin…

Facing a snap election on Feb. 23, Scholz’s Social Democrats are coming under pressure from Russia-friendly populist parties on both sides of the political spectrum that argue the government has not deployed enough diplomacy to end the war, according to Reuters.

The Trump Effect

November 15, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

It’s more than just getting rid of your pronouns.

German poll shows approval for more defense spending as NATO steels itself for Trump 2.0 – A majority of Germans support significant defense spending increases, an outlook that coincides with the imminent return of Donald Trump to the White House and an anticipated pressure campaign on allied militaries to step up, a new public opinion survey found.

In September, German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius proposed pushing the amount of spending dedicated to the military from 2% of gross domestic product to between 3 and 3.5%.

In a new poll released Monday by the Koerber-Stiftung Institute, 50% of respondents supported Pistorius’ idea, while a further 15% said even more should be spent on German defense.

Germany helps Ukraine…

November 14, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

By sending Russia more Russian soldiers.

Russian conscientious objectors in Germany face deportation – A ruling by the Higher Administrative Court of Berlin-Brandenburg means Russian conscientious objectors who fled their country have less chance of being granted asylum in Germany. Human rights activists are concerned.

Germany is deporting more and more Russian citizens back to Russia, even though there is not a single direct flight between the two countries. The number of deportations could increase if the courts and authorities consider a ruling by the Higher Administrative Court of Berlin-Brandenburg as a precedent…

“I wouldn’t say that German courts are adopting positions held by the Russian government. I interpret it as an unwillingness to consider information provded by human rights activists and the United Nations. It is easier to echo Russia’s state media outlets, who claim there is no mobilization.”