Tag Archives: EU

Not so quiet on the Western Front

August 21, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

The Chip War Western Front.

EU approves German state aid for $11 billion TSMC chip plant – Taiwan’s TSMC (2330.TW), opens new tab on Tuesday launched a major new computer chip plant in Dresden, Germany, expected to be a key supplier to European industry and carmakers after the EU Commission approved 5 billion euros ($5.5 billion) worth of state aid.

The large aid award for the project, which will cost 10 billion in all, is the biggest approved so far under the EU Chips Act, and the first in Germany.

It is also the first project in Europe under TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker, and is expected to improve Europe’s resiliency if a chip shortage of the type experienced during the COVID pandemic happens again.

No illegal aliens here

July 27, 2024 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

The Germans call them “irregular migrants.”

But even the wacky German left is starting figure out that “irregular migration” is maybe sort of not such a good thing. Not that they’ll ever actually do anything about it. But still.

Germany: Scholz says irregular migration must ‘come down’ – First-time claims for asylum in Germany fell by a fifth in the first six months of the year. The chancellor said border checks will continue, to further limit the number of migrants entering through the land borders.

“In general, we intend to continue strictly controlling the German borders,” Scholz told the regional paper. “We want to limit irregular migration, as I have announced. The numbers have to come down.”

Heart-shaped box, OK

July 23, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

But Germany-shaped void?

That tune will never be a hit.

The Germany-shaped void at Europe’s heart – Olaf Scholz’s government is punching below its weight in Brussels.

Last month Olaf Scholz and Emmanuel Macron entered an eu summit with a plan. The German and French leaders agreed that a “strategic agenda” document, drawn up to set the eu’s priorities for the next five years, was inadequate. The passages on climate and migration were weak, and what about defence? But their extensive rewrites, drawn up just before the meeting, sparked a revolt among the other leaders, Italy’s Giorgia Meloni among them. Voices were raised, fingers jabbed, and the pair retreated in humiliation…

“To our surprise,”

July 7, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

You didn’t want me to lecture you in person.

So I’ll just have to lecture from here at home.

Diplomatic tensions are escalating between Germany and Hungary after Budapest canceled a meeting between Foreign Minister Péter Szijjártó and his German counterpart, Annalena Baerbock, that had been planned for Monday in Budapest.

The unusual last-minute cancellation — tantamount to a diplomatic éclat — comes after German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and other EU leaders strongly criticized a trip by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán to Moscow, where he met with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday.

Baerbock had planned to raise the issue of Orbán’s meeting with Putin during her visit to Budapest on Monday. But “to our surprise, the Hungarian side canceled” the appointment with Szijjártó “at short notice,” a German foreign ministry official told reporters late Friday.

I’d be upset too, Poland

June 18, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Germany opened up the floodgates (Angela Merkel, 2015).

Let the Germans take care of the huddled masses yearning to be… to get a free lunch.

Poland upset after Germans return Afghan migrants – German police returned an Afghan family that had illegally departed Poland. Warsaw decried the move as a violation of law, German police say Polish counterparts left them waiting for hours.

“The transfer of foreigners to Poland by the German police was carried out in violation of the principles of cooperation between the two services and against the transfer law. The German authorities must not make such a decision arbitrarily.”

We’ll start checking our border crossings for once…

June 17, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

And jackpot! 1,400 unauthorized entries and 173 arrest warrants issued in one week.

Maybe we should do this more often. Like, for always and forever. And not just for Euro 2024.

Germany detects 1,400 unauthorised entries ahead of Euros, Bild says – Border authorities in Germany, host nation of Euro 2024, detected 1,400 unauthorised entries and issued 173 arrest warrants in the week preceding the soccer tournament, according to German newspaper Bild.

Expanded border controls introduced temporarily for the championships prevented 900 people from entering the country between June 7 and June 13, the Sunday paper said.

Never mix Afghans and soccer

June 16, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

And knives.

Particularly that knife part. Afghans and knives: Nicht gut. Damn. This guy must have been a real Scotland fan.

German police shoot to death an Afghan man who killed a compatriot, then attacked soccer fans – German police shot to death an Afghan man after he fatally attacked a compatriot and later wounded three people watching the televised opening game of the Euro 2024 soccer tournament in eastern Germany, police said Saturday.

A self-inflicted hostage-taking situation?

June 14, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Why is it that big German automakers are worried about Chinese retaliation?

Because they voluntarily put themselves in the position to be retaliated against. Think Germany’s voluntary dependency on Russian gas recently. That didn’t work out very well either. But for whatever reason, this is what Germans do.

Germany launches 11th-hour bid to avert trade war with China – Germany wants the EU to set tariffs on electric vehicles at a low level to avoid severe retaliation from Beijing…

Germany’s position was “problematic,” he said: While big German automakers still entertain good ties with Beijing, that’s not necessarily the case for smaller businesses, meaning “the German economy as a whole has an interest in a more assertive policy towards China.”

None of the experts can figure out why…

June 10, 2024 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Higher Education, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

It’s inexplicable. Why on earth would Europeans by voting for the right?

Something seems to bothering the electorate that we professionals in power have not been able to understand. Oh well. I suppose it’s one of those mysteries we will never be able to solve…

In Germany, the EU’s most populous nation, projections indicated that voters had not been dissuaded by the AfD’s scandals as it rose to 16.5%, up from 11% in 2019. In comparison, the combined result for the three parties in the German governing coalition barely topped 30%.

Write this down and look back in a year from now…

June 8, 2024 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

And nothing, absolutely nothing will have changed.

The people who say it know it. The people who hear it know it. The people who commit these crimes know it.

Germany’s Scholz vows to step up deportations after killing of police officer – The stabbing of an officer by a suspect from Afghanistan has put the chancellor under pressure to take a tougher stance on migration ahead of the EU election.

The gruesome killing of a police officer by a 25-year-old Afghan suspect has put German Chancellor Olaf Scholz under renewed pressure to take a tougher stance on migration days ahead of a European election in which the far right is expected to make sizeable gains.