The Donald’s 15 Minutes Threatening US-Amerika’s Once Proud Democracy

September 11, 2015 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Heconomy, Hideology, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Humor, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: American Dream, Anti-Americanism, Der Spiegel, Donald Trump, Doom, Elections, German, Germans, Germany, Gloom, Journalism, The Rich 10 Comments

Here’s this here way sophisticated high-brow Spiegel article in a nutshell like.

The American Dream is broken (again).

The super-rich are the only people who have profited from the considerable economic growth in the US in recent decades (the plain old filthy rich were left out in the cold this time, I guess).

The shifts in income that have taken place in recent years are destroying the moral fabric of society (maybe, but it’s a fabric still made in the USA, pal, so deal with it).

Not a single one of the current candidates for president is willing to call for an increase in taxes (this is a very, very Bad Thing for some reason).

The super-wealthy are against anything that might help the bottom 90 percent to rise (that is one heavy bottom, isn’t it?).

America is just an oligarchy with unlimited political bribery being the essence of getting the nominations for president or to elect the president (quoted form someone who should know: Jimmy Carter).

But is it really any more democratic that a billionaire can buy his own election instead of allowing himself to be bought by others?

Even When We Win We Lose

May 11, 2015 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: Bremen, Elections, FDP, German, Germans, Germany, Lencke Steiner, Social Democracy, Socialism, SPD Leave a comment

Or so it goes with SPD these days.

Germany’s Social Democrats, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition partners, on Sunday suffered their worst-ever electoral setback in regional polls in Bremen, raising questions about party leader Sigmar Gabriel’s hopes of gaining ground nationally on Ms Merkel’s conservative Christian Democrats.

So sehen Sieger aus (this is what winners look like):

In Bremen ändern 6,5 Prozent für die FDP nicht viel. Im Bund aber eröffnet ihre Wiedererweckung Gedankenspiele für die Wahl 2017.

German Of The Day: Überraschung!

April 10, 2015 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Candidates, Elections, German, Hillary Clinton, Humor, Language 1 Comment

That means surprise!

As in the circus has just come to town?

Clinton circus has become too much, even for political junkies

Germans Being Assured That Bad Republicans Didn’t Actually Win

November 5, 2014 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Humor, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Democrats, Elections, German, Germans, Germany, Humor, Midterm Elections, Obama, Political Parties, Repbulicans, Satire 1 Comment

“Why the Democrats’ debacle isn’t really a victory for the Republicans,” the title of this here article goes, for instance.

I would have loved to have read what was surely the profound explanation for just how on earth that can possibly be but then that scary photo of that evil Republican lurking in the shadows wearing a black hat there caught my eye and I just had to click away real pronto-like before he could get the chance to draw me into a maelstrom of evil and villainy and consuming despair.

Die Republikaner feiern einen Erdrutschsieg im Senat. Doch der Machtwechsel wird an der Lähmung der US-Politik kaum etwas ändern.

Only In Germany Can You Emasculate A Traffic Light

May 25, 2014 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helections, Hideology, High Art, Home Cooking, Humor, Hypocrisy Tags: Berlin, Elections, German, Germans, Germany, Government Waste, Humor, Quotas, Satire, Token Women, Traffic Lights 1 Comment

The city of Berlin may be poor but sexy, but it is not poor but sexy enough to not be able to scrape up enough needed tax euros to introduce a traffic light woman quota.

I don’t make this stuff up, people.

“Women need to be more present in the appearances of our capital’s streets,” Martina Matischok-Yesilcimen, Germany’s Social Democratic Party district leader who signed a recent motion (PDF) to introduce female walk signals, told Bloomberg News.

“We’re a diverse city, and that deserves to be seen.”

PS: And have a happy election day or something while you’re at it.

What Conchita Wurst Tells Us About EU Identity?

May 23, 2014 By Hermann Observer in Hard Facts, Helections, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hypochondria, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Conchita Wurst, Elections, EU, Europe, German, Germans, Germany, Google, Happiness, Humor, Identity, Putin, Satire Leave a comment

Why everything, doesn’t she?

Damn. This guy here sure hit the nail right on the head: “Europe has struggled for decades to forge a common identity — and now the Continent’s response to Putin, its battle against Google and the victory of drag queen Conchita Wurst at the Eurovision Song Contest all suggest that shared values are finally emerging.”

Well that certainly sums it up nicely for me.

PS: This doesn’t necessarily make Europeans all that happy, you must understand (Conchita doesn’t look all that happy up there, either). At least not the Germans. Germany came in 46th of the 138 countries examened for the “International Happiness Map.”

Let It Rot

May 18, 2014 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Heconomy, Helections, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Berlin, Counter-Culture, Elections, German, Germans, Germany, Initiatives, Parks, Propositions, Protest, Tempelhof Airport, Tempelhof Feld Leave a comment

It’s voting time in Berlin again. This time it’s about whether or not good old abandoned Tempelhof Field should be developed or not (for housing, a library, etc.). You know, to actually maybe use it for something other than flying kites?

But as usual we have learned that this would be a terrible thing and that the field needs to be “saved” from such an awful fate, or at least that’s what opponents on the left insist. Urban Romantics need more room to move, especially if they are German ones (“the richest kind”) and being that saying no is so popular and comes so naturally to Germans in general and Berliners in particular, I am quite sure these opponents will win yet again.

Der stillgelegte Berliner Flughafen liegt brach. Nicht weil der Ort belasteter wäre als andere, sondern weil es leichter ist, mit dem “Luxus der Leere” zu kokettieren, als die Geschichte anzunehmen.

Das Tempelhofer-Feld ist eine Oase mitten in Berlin.

Stop Hurting Russia’s Feelings Already

May 1, 2014 By Hermann Observer in Habitudes, Helections, Hideology, High Art, History, Home Cooking, Humor, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: Cold War, Communism, Crimea, Elections, German, Germans, Germany, Humor, May Day, Political Parties, Putin, Rosa Luxemburg, Russia, Sahra Wagenknecht, Satire, Ukraine Leave a comment

Who would have expected that? The German Left Party itself (they used to be called the PDS or Partei der Stasi) has expressed grave concern over the EU’s aggressive stance toward the Soviet Union, I mean Vlad Putin’s democratic Russia.

Rosa Luxemburg, I mean Sahra Wagenknecht herself has sharply critisized European crisis management with regard to the Ukraine conflict, saying it consisted of “vile Russia bashing right out of the Cold War” and that the West is pursuing a vicious anti-Russian policy of exclusion and unniceness and rottenness and that everybody, those damned faschist Ukrainians included, should finally just leave our commrades, I mean Russian partners alone already.

May Day, May Day… Earth to Wagenknecht. Earth to Wagenknecht. Can you read me?

Das ist übles Russland-Bashing aus Kalter-Krieg-Zeiten.

Tell Me How To Vote Oh Great And Powerful Vote-O-Mat!

April 30, 2014 By Hermann Observer in Helections, Helplessness, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Hypocrisy Tags: Big Brother, Elections, Europawahl, German, Germans, Germany, Voting, Wahl-O-Mat 4 Comments

Do you have any idea what the reaction over here would be if this were a freakin’ US-Amerikan invention?

That’s right, the Wahl-O-Mat is a specially designed hi-tech online device that will instruct undecided and/or clueless German voters who to vote for. Just answer 38 questions posed by Spiegel Online ITSELF and something called The Federal Center for Political Literacy and you will gladly be told precisely where to place your X in the upcoming European Election. And not to worry, the Wahl-O-Mat just can’t be evil because, well, it comes from here.

Hmmm. I wonder if these are going to be used in the upcoming Ukrainian referendum, too.

Testen Sie, welche Partei Ihren Ansichten am nächsten kommt!

Germany Soon To Get The Government It Voted For

November 26, 2013 By Hermann Observer in Habeas Corpus, Habitudes, Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helections, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings, Hypocrisy, Hysteria Tags: CDU/CSU, Elections, Gabriel, Humor, Merkel, Parliamentary Systems, Proportional Representation, Satire, SPD Leave a comment

Not. In other countries you usually get the government you vote for. But not here in Germany. At least not this time.

Close only counts in horseshoes and dancing (and hand grenades). And Angela Merkel getting close to having an absolute majority in the German election two months ago just wasn’t close enough. So let’s hear it for proportional representation! The FDP is gone. The Greens are still licking their wounds. What’s left? The SPD and the Left party are left, that’s who’s left.

So now the losers are dictating the agenda. In more ways than one.

No, it’s not good news. And it gets worse. As part of his pivot to the left, Gabriel has promised that the Social Democrats will be open to coalitions with the Left party, the heirs of the East German Communists. Since the SPD, the Left and the Greens already hold a majority in parliament, the temptation for Gabriel to break with Merkel in, say, two years to form a “red-red-green” coalition with himself as chancellor could become irresistible.

Observing Hermann

“Was interessiert mich mein Geschwätz von gestern?”

Tag Archives: Elections