Tag Archives: Germany

German of the day: Wehrpflicht

December 29, 2023 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means conscription.

Germany mulls reintroduction of compulsory military service – The Bundeswehr is facing a dramatic shortage in personnel. Now Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has rekindled the debate over reintroducing conscription.

At the end of October, the Bundeswehr said it counted 181,383 soldiers in its ranks — that’s still some distance from the target of 203,000 that the German military hopes to reach by 2025. This has given rise to concern in times of Russia’s war against Ukraine, which has once again reminded Germans how quickly conflicts can erupt in Europe.

Since taking office at the beginning of 2023, Defense Minister Boris Pistorius has been thinking about ways to make the Bundeswehr more attractive as a career. He said he has received 65 concrete proposals from his ministry on recruitment and reforming training methods.

Even conscription, something Germany ended in 2011, is also up for debate. “There were reasons at the time to suspend compulsory military service. In retrospect, however, it was a mistake,” Pistorius told newspaper Die Welt earlier in December.

Your can hardly get any customers to visit your restaurant now?

December 28, 2023 By in Hard Facts, Heconomy, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

I know! We’ll increase the sales tax so nobody comes to your restaurant at all anymore.

No need to thank us. We’re from the government and we’re here to help.

German budget woes trigger disaster warnings for restaurants – Owners who oppose return to higher pre-pandemic VAT rate are dismissed as scaremongers by economists.

Kemal Üres, owner of a tapas bar in Hamburg, has spent the past year telling his social media followers that thousands of businesses like his will be destroyed by a planned tax increase.

The man who calls himself the “Gastroflüsterer”, or restaurant whisperer, is campaigning to make the pandemic-era cut in value added tax on restaurant meals permanent. Otherwise, the German government’s decision to raise VAT from the 7 per cent rate in place since 2020 back up to 19 per cent in January would lead to higher prices, job cuts and as many as 30,000 bankruptcies, he said.

Have Yourself a Merry Little Anschlag

December 24, 2023 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

German of the day: Anschlag. That means attack.

It’s the Islamist way to say Merry Christmas!

Security hiked at Cologne Cathedral for Christmas amid attack threat – German police said on Saturday they were heightening security at Cologne Cathedral following indications of an attack planned for New Year’s Eve and in the wake of government warnings in recent weeks about the rising threat of Islamist violence.

The police said in a statement they would use tracker dogs to check the cathedral after evening mass and then close it off. On Sunday, Christmas Eve, they would carry out a security check on all visitors, and recommended they get to services early.

German of the day: “Wer nicht hören will, muss fühlen”

December 22, 2023 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hurt Feelings Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

That means those who refuse to listen shall feel the consequences.

The established, traditional political parties in Germany are still refusing to listen to the electorate. Their voters have had it. With the migrant madness, for one thing. And with crazy Green utopia (highest energy prices in Europe and climbing), for another. And if these parties won’t listen, then voters have no other choice but to vote for a party that will.

Alice Weidel’s hard-right politics is winning over Germans.

Our Berlin bureau chief sits down with the increasingly popular co-leader of the Alternative for Germany, the furthest-right of the country’s seven main political parties.

Infuriated?

December 21, 2023 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

Damn right.

They should have voted no. It’s just the same old talk the talk, sort of, without walking the walk.

Cease-fire in Gaza: Why Germany abstained in UN votes – Twice now Germany has abstained in a vote in the UN General Assembly that called for a cease-fire in the Middle East. Many countries around the world are infuriated by this.

“We need Germany’s support at the UN,” Israel’s ambassador to Berlin, Ron Prosor, said afterwards. It wasn’t enough, he declared, to abstain “because people are incapable of saying explicitly that Hamas is responsible for this brutal massacre.”

Just in the nick of time!

December 19, 2023 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Hang in there, Lithuania.

German cavalry is on its way.

German brigade to be combat ready in Lithuania, on Russian border, in 2027.

A permanent German brigade of about 4,800 soldiers in Lithuania, on the Russian border, will be combat-ready in 2027, defence ministers of both NATO members said on Monday after signing an agreement on German troops’ first permanent foreign deployment since World War Two.

The Berlin Airlift

December 18, 2023 By in Hard Facts, Helplessness, Home Cooking Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Only this time the planes would be leaving Berlin. And headed toward Rwanda.

Or was it Wakanda? Anyway, good luck with that. You’re going to need it.

CDU seeks to win back German voters with its own Rwanda asylum plan – Official says party favours sending refugees to third countries such as Rwanda for application processing.

“If we did this and kept it up consequently for four, six, eight weeks, we would see the numbers [claiming asylum] reduce dramatically.”

“Unscrupulous smugglers who brutally put people’s lives at risk?”

December 16, 2023 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology, Home Cooking, Hypocrisy Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Do you mean the politicians like you who smuggled this migrant madness into Europe in the first place?

Germany extends checks at Polish, Czech, Swiss borders until mid-March – Measures seek to combat smuggling and limit irregular migration.

“Our fight against the unscrupulous business of smugglers, who brutally put people’s lives at risk, is successful,” Faeser said. Since mid-October, the Federal Police have arrested around 340 smugglers as part of internal border controls, she added. According to her, the number of unauthorized entries nationwide has fallen by more than 60 percent since the temporary border controls were introduced in October, from over 20,000 in October to about 7,300 in November.

I didn’t know you could close a river

December 15, 2023 By in Habitudes, Hard Facts, Helplessness, Hideology Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Especially one that was supposed to have dried up long ago.

Just this summer it was all over with the Rhine, I was told. But hey. The Climate Crises can be like that. One climate crisis is too dry. The next one is two wet. It’s kind of like the weather, you know?

River Rhine in south Germany remains closed to shipping – Parts of the river Rhine in south Germany remained closed to shipping on Friday after heavy rain and melting snow increased water levels, but could reopen later this weekend, navigation authorities said.