But Look On The Bright Side

Germans may feel the least free of all Europeans when it comes to the pandemic…

But to compensate for this they pay the highest taxes, have the highest energy and water costs, earn some of the lowest wages, get the lowest retirement pay, fight through the worst bureaucracy, have the most difficult time acquiring property of all Europeans and there’s more of course but I’ll stop here because I’m running out of breath.

Germans ‘feel least free’ of all Europeans during pandemic – Nowhere in Europe have people felt more inhibited by 18 months of Covid-19 restrictions than in Germany, a new study by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) finds.

Just one in ten Germans currently ‘feel free’ in their everyday life, while almost half say that they ‘don’t feel free’, the study published on Wednesday found.

The results put Germany at the bottom of a table of Europeans in 12 EU member states who were asked about their level of freedom now compared to since the pre-pandemic days.

Even “Kevin” Will Do

But you don’t have to name your kid Kevin. Don’t get me wrong. I’m just sayin’.

You can be German even if your name is not ‘Klaus’ or ‘Erika’ -Merkel.

Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Tuesday migrants who settle in Germany are German even if they have foreign-sounding names, making a subtle dig at a widespread habit among white Germans of asking Turks born on German soil where they come from.

“Integration cannot be a seven-generation endeavour that never ends just because one isn’t called Klaus or Erika,” Merkel said with a wry smile during a ceremony to mark 60 years since Germany signed a treaty with Turkey to bring in hundreds of thousands of Turkish men to fill labour shortages in the 1960s.

Meanwhile… Germany’s Merkel says some 10-40,000 left in Afghanistan with right to German residence.

Inflation Is Taxation Without Legislation

Or: “By a continuing process of inflation, government can confiscate, secretly and unobserved, an important part of the wealth of their citizens.”

German inflation hits fresh 13-year high in August – Germany’s annual consumer price inflation accelerated to a fresh 13-year high in August, data showed on Monday, underlining growing price pressures as Europe’s largest economy recovers from the pandemic and companies struggle with supply shortages.

Consumer prices, harmonised to make them comparable with inflation data from other European Union countries (HICP), rose 3.4% compared with 3.1% in July, preliminary figures from the Federal Statistics Office showed.

Sunflowers And Cargo Bikes

That’s what the German voter wants. Or at least that’w what the German Greens think they want.

I knew they’d shoot themselves in the foot before the upcoming election but that they could shoot themselves three or four times was beyond my wildest dreams.

German Greens under fire over 19th-century folk song in election ad – Greens go for wide appeal with reworked campfire song with no mention of devastating floods.

The original song, Kein Schöner Land in dieser Zeit (there is no country more beautiful than ours at this time) – still a popular campfire song and widely sung by scouts – celebrates the gathering of friends in nature one summer’s evening. They declare that with God’s grace they will continue to meet in this way in the future.

Real Bourgeois Socialists Overtake Fake Bourgeois Socialists

Hauptsache (the main thing) is that bourgeois socialists remain in power. More free stuff appears to be on the way.

Germany election: SPD overtakes Merkel’s CDU in polls for first time in 15 years.

Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) has moved ahead of Angela Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) in the polls for the first time in fifteen years.

The SPD was polling at 23% while the CDU was one point behind at 22%, according to figures released on Tuesday by Forsa.

“Shames The West”

That’s right. The “correct,” woke German take. Not “shames the individual responsible,” Joe Biden.

The “West” may be clinically dead, but it’s reassuring to know that the reflex of our collective, knee-jerk obsession with guilt still works.

Afghan turmoil ‘shames’ the West, says German president – Images of throngs trying to flee Kabul are shameful for Western nations, Germany’s president said on Tuesday, as desperate people clamoured at the airport after the Taliban takeover.

“We are experiencing a human tragedy for which we share responsibility.”

But It Was Done Orderly

I’m sure. The seven (7) people evacuated from Kabul on the first German flight out were evacuated orderly and comfortably.

Not like the 800 people on board that C-17A cargo jet up there.

A first German military plane to land in Kabul since the Taliban takeover evacuated only seven people, the government said on Tuesday, due to chaos at the Afghan capital’s airport.

Germany, which had the second largest military contingent in Afghanistan after the United States, wants to airlift thousands of German-Afghan dual nationals as well as rights activists, lawyers and people who worked with foreign forces.

German CO2 Doesn’t Stink

Well, not usually.

Distracted while showing the rest of the world how to best go green, sneaky German greenhouse emissions grew by the largest leap since 1990.

Germany is forecast to slip back below the threshold it had set for cutting greenhouse gases by 2020, amid a post-pandemic recovery and unfavorable conditions for renewable energy, according to a report by an environmental think tank Sunday.

Berlin-based Agora Energiewende examined data from the first half of 2021 to forecast that total emissions in Germany this year will be equivalent to somewhere between 760 million to 812 million tons of CO2.

This would put Germany’s emissions about 35-39% below 1990 levels. The German government had pledged to achieve cuts of 40% by 2020 — a target it claimed to have reached last year, in large part due to the pandemic-related economic downturn.

This year’s rebound of about 47 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2021 would be the biggest increase since 1990, Agora Energiewende said.

Local Hires?

Now hiring. Not.

It’s more like firing. In more ways than one.

What To Do With Local Hires?

With the Taliban rapidly taking control in Afghanistan, Berlin doesn’t have much time left to protect local hires from potential harm. Meanwhile, a potential new wave of refugees from the country threatens to become a dominant issue in the general election campaign.

“The call was unfortunately made by accident. You are actually not eligible for asylum.”

A Saline Solution?

Instead of a Covid vaccination?

Well, at least they won’t be catching Saline, right? Will they need a second shot?

A nurse is being investigated by police in Germany for allegedly replacing Covid-19 vaccines with saline solution.

The nurse replaced the vaccines between March and April this year at Roffhausen immunization center in Friesland, northwest Germany, the Friesland district administrator, Sven Ambrosy, said on Facebook Tuesday.

“Today I had the sad duty to inform around 8,600 people who may have been affected that it cannot be ruled out they may have received a saline solution instead of their vaccination at their vaccination appointment. For peace of mind we would recommend people get an additional vaccination,” Ambrosy said.