Talk The Talk

Sure. But walk the walk? Nein, Danke!

Germany to Miss Military Spending Target Next Year, Study Says – Germany will fail to meet a NATO guideline of spending 2% of gross domestic product on its military next year and again from 2026 onwards, according to an analysis quoted in local media on Monday.

“The 2% target is receding into the distant future despite €100 billion in special funds, and even necessary procurements in the short term are not progressing.”

It’s just a show, people. Get used to it.

German Of The Day: Energiepreis-Stoppschild

That means energy price stop sign.

This is a brilliant new German invention (both the word and the concept) meaning that energy providers must first explain why they will be raising prices before going ahead and raising them anyway. Thanks German government (the ones who created this energy crisis in Germany in the first place), German citizens are most certainly saying, we wouldn’t be able to sleep soundly at night without you.

Germany to force energy providers to justify future price hikes – The German government plans to allow energy providers to raise prices next year only if objectively justified, the economy ministry said on Saturday, denying a media report that Berlin planned a ban on all energy price hikes for consumers.

It Simply Isn’t True That We Don’t Have Enough Weapons

It’s just that we don’t have enough ammunition.

The more things change (with the German army), the more they stay the same. I’ve timed these “unpreparedness” intervals to be about every eight to ten months – for decades now. Germans have no intention of ever having a “real” army again. The Bundeswehr is simply an alibi army needed to justify the German weapons industry. Just get used to it, folks. And don’t believe any of their rhetoric.

German defense minister comes under heavy fire over ammunition shortages – Both government coalition partners attack Christine Lambrecht over apparent unpreparedness and inaction to secure enough ammo for armed forces.

Most Stupid Empty Political Gesture For 2022 Yet?

I thought pouting about their dopey armband was embarrassing enough. But, you know, this here definitely takes the Kuchen.

At least now we know why Germany lost against Japan in their opener. There’s no way you can properly play sports while holding your hand in front of your mouth like that. Not even soccer.

Germany players cover mouths in protest against FIFA clampdown on free speech in ‘OneLove’ armband row.

It was a moment so brief that the thousands of fans inside the Khalifa International Stadium on Wednesday could easily have missed it.

Unfortunately for you, I am now sharing that moment with you.

No German Going-It-Alone Here

They have another word for it. It’s called Alleingang.

That means going-it-alone, of course. Although that is something Germans regularly claim they would never ever do. Apparently, only Germans are capable of believing such nonsense.

Olaf Scholz Is Undermining Western Unity on China – The German chancellor’s go-it-alone approach has alienated domestic, EU, and international partners.

The German chancellor sought to get ahead of the pack. Scholz argued it was time to speak directly with Xi after a three-year hiatus in such bilateral meetings due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The chancellor said he sought to confront issues in the Germany-China relationship precisely because it isn’t business as usual. In an op-ed in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, Scholz wrote that “as China changes, so must our approach to the country.”

Free Speech Is A Frightening Prospect

For the German government. Look, if we allow people to say and to think anything they want, well, they just might.

And if we can no longer ensure that German citizens think the correct thoughts, they might just refuse to do what we tell them to do. And who knows where that could lead to?

Germany watching developments at Twitter with growing concern – The German government is watching developments at Twitter with growing concern, a government spokesperson said on Friday.

“Of course, we are observing this with great interest and growing concern … but at the moment there is no new (government) position,” the spokesperson told a regular government news conference.

German Of The Day: Ringtausch

Some say it means “ring exchange” (not the wedding kind). Others say it means being chicken shit.

With Slovakian deal, Germany expands three-way ‘Ringtausch’ dance to arm Ukraine – Under the Ringtausch program, Germany has sent newer equipment to Slovakia, Greece, Slovenia and the Czech Republic, with those countries shifting older gear to Ukraine.

The Germans have a specific word for an exchange between at least three parties: “Ringtausch.” So it makes sense that is what the German government has named its procedure to gift modern military equipment to former Soviet-bloc countries who, in turn, gift their Soviet-era equipment to Ukraine.

Germany Should Also Airlift All “Climate Migrants” Coming To Europe Directly To Berlin

Why didn’t anyone think of this in the past? Why did we have to wait until the Greens are in power before finding such simple and effective solutions?

Nothing like good old-fashioned German megalomania.

Germany should help poor countries bear climate change costs – Germany needs to help countries that cannot afford to pay for the losses and damage caused by climate change, Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock said on Wednesday at the COP27 climate summit in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

Dozens of developing countries have called for a deal at COP27 on a funding facility where rich nations would provide loss and damage cash to vulnerable states.

We Germans Condemn The Iranian Regime’s Brutality Toward Protestors

As well as their open hostility toward Israel.

But boy oh boy their gas sure doesn’t stink.

Germany in secret talks to buy Iranian oil amid Russian war sanctions – The chief economist for the partially state-owned bank LBBW in the southwestern German state of Baden-Württemberg announced that Germany is engaged in secret talks with the Islamic Republic of Iran to buy Iranian oil.

“Intensive talks are already being held behind the scenes with Venezuela, Iran or Algeria to cover Germany’s oil and gasoline needs.”

German Blackout Experts Now Giving Blackout Courses

“I’m taking Blackout Basics. Which one did you enroll in?”

The folks who caused the situation in the first place (German voters) are now teaching each other how to avoid the situation they already caused in the first place. Go renewables! Nuclear energy? Nein, Danke!

Growing number of Germans won’t be left in dark with blackout courses – Once purely the stuff of action movie plots, the prospect of the lights going out in Europe’s biggest economy has become a conceivable threat during the current energy crisis.

Looking to be the heroes in a real-life blackout, a growing number of Germans are turning to citizens’ courses to learn how to act if they find themselves plunged into darkness.

“If the electricity goes out then absolutely nothing works any more. And we need to understand what ‘nothing working’ really means,” said Birgitt Eberlin, an instructor at the Workers’ Samaritan Federation (ASB).