Thou Shall Not Drive A Car With An Internal Combustion Engine

Thou shall not fly. Thou shall not participate in free trade…

Bans, prohibitions, Verbote. That’s what green folks do best. And Germany’s latest Green Moses just came down from the mountain. It is election season in Germany, after all. Time for more true Green religion.

German business lobby group defends its mocking of Greens leader – A German business lobby group on Tuesday defended a controversial campaign in which it portrays Greens chancellor candidate Annalena Baerbock dressed as a biblical Moses, holding two tablets under the caption “Annalena and the 10 bans.”

In its campaign, lobby group INSM attacks the Greens’ policies to steer Germans into electric cars and onto trains instead of domestic flights. But its portrayal of Baerbock as Moses has met criticism and accusations of anti-Semitism.

“We don’t need a state religion.”

German Of The Day: Abstürzen

That means to fall, plummet, crash.

And as noted repeatedly in the past, that’s what the German Greens love to do, right before any big election comes along. There will be one here in the Fall.

It has become a real tradition with them. Whenever they are doing well in the polls, and they were up until a few weeks ago, they do one or two stupid things to remind the electorate about how clueless they are. Now their numbers are plummeting big time.

Their front woman (it seems the Greens believe it is finally time for Germany to have a woman chancellor) got caught failing to report her 25,000 euro “Corona bonus” to the taxman. Her CV doesn’t stand up to objective scrutiny either. Meanwhile, their resentful male number two has been stumbling around in Ukraine demonstrating to the German voter how naive he is. Or green behind the ears, if you prefer. Bring on the elections! Now. Bitte.

Der eine stolpert mit Stahlhelm durch die Ukraine und offenbart seine außenpolitische Unbedarftheit. Die andere vergisst, dem Bundestag Sonderzahlungen von mehr als 25.000 Euro zu melden, und kämpft mit ihrem eigenen Lebenslauf, der offenkundig nicht nur lückenhaft, sondern auch geschönt war.

German Greens Leap To The Future

Or hope to, if elected in the Fall. When it comes to traffic and mobility in Germany, I mean.

It will be a great leap forward, so-to-speak.

Germany: Climate activists, cyclists oppose autobahn expansion – Cyclists and climate activists across Germany have defied autobahn construction, arguing that more roading and relentless car traffic violate urgent global climate rescue goals.

Is This The Shot In The Foot?

The German Greens are notorious for this. Whenever they are doing well in the polls, which is the case at the moment, they say something so revealing, that is, so ridiculous about their policies, that they single-handedly manage to turn this trend around.

This time the shot may have come from Robert Habeck, the Green boy boss who was edged out of the running as head honcho by the Green girl boss Annalena Baerbock. How much he resents this we’ll probably never know but in a talk show last night the possibility of raising the price of gasoline as high as 60 euros per liter (per liter, not gallon) was addressed. You know, to make the world a greener place and save humanity and all that? Under her leadership, of course.

I’m not sure but I can’t imagine even the greenest of German Green going along with that one. Unless they’re really green behind the ears.

„Der klimawirksame Gewinn ist nicht so besonders hoch. Das muss man einfach zugeben. Es ist eher ein Beispiel dafür, was man alles machen kann, was niemandem wirklich weh tut. Die ökonomische Frage, wie teuer Fliegen wird, ist davon zu trennen.“

He’s Not A Racist

And everybody here knows it. His problem is that he’s not a Green. He says reasonable, grown-up, real-world things all day long.

That’s why he is “controversial.” That’s why the Greens have to kick him out. It’s like the SPD all over again with their heretic, Thilo Sarrazin. If you don’t follow the party line you’re history. Die Partei hat immer recht. The party is always right, especially when it’s left.

Germany: Greens to oust Tübingen mayor over racist comments – Members of the environmentalist Greens party have overwhelmingly voted to remove Boris Palmer from their ranks. The mayor had used a racial slur against soccer player Dennis Aogo.

This Is “Normal” Germany Already

You don’t have to return to it. You’re already living in it. And it’s too late to turn back, I’m afraid.

Germany’s largest opposition party, the Far-right AfD calls for ‘normal’ Germany at conference – The far-right Alternative for Germany is preparing its election platform as rival factions vie for power. A party meeting could determine if the AfD shifts further right. It’s already pushing for Germany to leave the EU.

“Germany. But normal.”

Angela Merkel Isn’t Quite Finished With Her Party Yet

Or with her country, for that matter. But it won’t be much longer.

CDU

Merkel’s Conservatives Mired in Scandal and Incompetence…

The Union has been in turmoil ever since it became known that to conservative lawmakers are thought to have enriched themselves with business deals involving medical protective equipment – at a time when workers across the country were fearful of losing their jobs, when the self-employed were facing ruin and when doctors and nurses were risking their health. Political representatives benefitting from a crisis that has gripped the entire country is not a good look…

A majority of the population, though, might be inclined to overlook such missteps if things were actually working. If people had the feeling that the government was doing its job protecting the population from the virus and ably leading the country through the pandemic. But that is not the case.

Die Union rutscht in einer Umfrage um vier Prozentpunkte ab und hat den positiven Effekt der Corona-Krise wieder verspielt. In der Kanzlerfrage läge Laschet hinter Grünen-Politiker Habeck – aber vor einem anderen direkten Konkurrenten.

There Are Consequences?

Even in Merkel’s Germany?

CDU

I doubt it. It just looks that way at first glance. Nothing ever really changes here.

Impatience at a four-month lockdown and a glacial Covid-19 vaccine rollout have begun to eat away at popular support for German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her conservatives months before a general election.

The party suffered a blow on Sunday, recording one of its worst-ever defeats at regional elections in two populous states in Germany’s affluent south, according to preliminary results.

Would You Place The Largest Opposition Party In Your Country Under Domestic Surveillance?

Would you have the FBI spy on, say, the Democrats? Yeah, I would too. But that’s not the point. The point is, first of all, that this guy down here looks really, really mean.

AfD

The second and more important point is that by placing the largest opposition party in your country under domestic surveillance you are placing a very large percentage of your electorate under suspicion of being, in this case, Nazis. You can do that here in Germany. Coming to your country soon too?

Germany Places Right-Wing Opposition Party Under Domestic Surveillance – Germany’s domestic intelligence agency has put the country’s largest opposition party under surveillance as a potential threat to the country’s constitution, according to public (they mean state TV) broadcaster ARD and other media outlets. The move affects dozens of lawmakers who are in the right-wing Alternative for Germany, or AfD, party.

I can’t shake the feeling that the other political parties – and they are all on the same sheet of music here – don’t welcome competition from other political parties. Especially from those who have already stolen a considerable number of your voters.

“Angela Merkel’s government is trying to stigmatize us and to really put us in the Nazi corner.”

Sound Vaguely Familiar?

It should. The powers that be in Germany (the political party powers that be) are threatening to put an unwanted competitor, Alternative for Germany, under surveillance for, well, for being an unwanted competitor.

AfD

Sure, they claim it’s for being the Bad Guy Party, for trivializing Germany’s Nazi past but that’s just vorgeschoben (a pretext). They’re stealing their votes by literally offering German voters an alternative. That’s against German political party line. And just so you know, the evil AfD is the largest opposition party in Germany by far.

But hey, at least half of the citizens of The Banana Republic of America are suspected of being insurrectionists and white supremacists and are under surveillance already so go with the flow, right?

Germany Expected To Put Right-Wing AfD Under Surveillance For Violating Constitution – “This agency has the power — and not only to do surveillance on fringe groups, domestic terrorist threats, but also to keep an eye on any political institution, like a political party.”