It seems Germans are somewhat unique in their timeless ability to fall under the spell of a political leader who is going to do them no good.
So I thought that by moving to Germany I would stop getting useless junk mail from politicians. Apparently not.
This is what Alternative für Deutschland is campaigning on. I'm a fan of chicks in dirndls as much as the next guy, but if your campaign is based on burka bans, your message is off.
I'm driving to Austria right now, and I've seen several more of their signs with more revealing dirndls (fuller and more ample bosoms). I think they're making this their core issue.
And not only is she almost surely going to win, she's likely to oust the SPD from the coalition. The economically libertarian FDP is almost sure to re-enter the Bundestag, and there's significant talk of Merkel forming a government with the FDP and ironically, the Greens. Seems crazy, but in Germany the Greens are a lot more mainstream than in the US. In fact, they have a moderate wing and already have a coalition with the CDU in the Baden-Württemberg Landtag. It's not a crazy idea.
There is something about German culture makes them collectively and repeatedly support political candidates not in their best interest She wont have the majority but it will not matter
Merkel demands Poland take in more 'immigrants' The Poles respond "Poland took a step forward in its push for reparations from Germany, with a parliamentary body saying there’s a legal basis to pursue claims for damages sustained in World War II. Parliament’s legal-analysis bureau said in an opinion published on Monday that wartime reparations haven’t “expired or lost validity” and that Poland was short-changed on previous German efforts to pay damages for the 1939-1945 war. The Polish government, which finds itself increasingly isolated in the European Union amid accusations it’s eroding democratic standards, hasn’t decided whether or how to pursue any claims......"
Of course, if Poland wants to revisit that, then Germany may want to revisit the assumption that the Eastern border of Germany is the Oder-Neisse line. Plenty of Germans who had nothing to do with the war were dispossessed of property that's in present-day Poland.
Saw two more Alternative fur Deutschland signs. This one means something along the lines of "Energy shouldn't be a luxury!" I'm pretty sure the EEG is another effort to promote wind and solar power, which of course means even higher energy prices, which are already obscene over here. So I guess they're running on more than just cleavage and dirndls. And this one. Of course, Frauke Petry is the leader of AfD holding her recently-born baby, and this says "And what is your reason for fighting for Germany? Trust in Germany!" The obvious implication is that in addition to having a nice set of legs, Frauke is fighting for German children and their future.
What is the procedure to counterclaim the Soviets? Because they got their chunk of skin at the same time.
They could go after Russia. I'm sure Putin would be happy to pay reparations. lol In all seriousness, I think these demands for 70 year old reparations are counterproductive. If we're going to get into issues like this, then why not also discuss the expulsion of Germans from Eastern Europe? Obviously, nobody would favor giving land back to Germans that the Nazis sent to resettle Eastern Europe. However, millions of ethnic Germans (so-called "Volksdeutsche") lived in and owned property in present-day Poland and Czech Republic and had nothing to do with the war. They just got screwed out of their property for no reason other than their ethnicity. Should they get their land back? I think the argument could be made. In fact, we can put it all back on the table. We can take Kaliningrad away from Russia, rename it Königsberg, and give it and East Prussia back to Germany. We can take the rest of the former Eastern territories (West Prussia, Upper and Lower Silesia, etc.) away from Poland and give those back to Germany. In return, we can take everything east of the Curzon Line away from Lithuania, Belarus, and Ukraine, and give it back to Poland. Or we can just accept that the war is over and go on with our lives.
I saw this today about a mile from my house. I can't read the word that starts with a d. However, "hurensohn" means essentially a "*****'s son." Scheiße means "****."
So Merkel retains power? But the election returns indicate Germans are slowly waking up to all the bad things her immigration policies are doing to their country, and the EU? Why are they so slow? I've never been able to grasp why their socialized mass guilt over the history of Hitler translates directly into "we must have open borders."
Since the alternative is Martin Schulz, probably so. Trust me, he makes Merkel look pretty good. In addition, like anyone else, your average German cares first and foremost about the economy, and as bad as her "migrant" policy has been, her economic policies have been pretty effective. Merkel (and to be fair, Schroeder) has been able to greatly exploit Germany's position in the EU to boost their exports (and therefore jobs) to phenomenal levels. Though the recession hit Germany, it didn't hit it anywhere near as hard as it hit other countries. If she hadn't done that one extremely idiotic and dangerous thing, I'd be a lot more favorable to her. Well, they've had their nationalism beaten out of them and have been taught with constant reinforcement that any politician who promotes a nationalist position is dangerous and evil regardless of the circumstances. It begins in their schools and gets absolutely bludgeoned into them by the media. In addition, the nationalist parties have made some unforced errors. First, prior to AfD, the main nationalist party was the National Democratic Party (NPD). Well, they pretty much are neo-Nazis and act like total goofballs. That hasn't helped. Second, even though AfD is miles away from the NPD, some of their leaders have said idiotic things that don't help their case and have some questionable relationships. For example, though she was nothing but kind to me when I met her in Strasbourg, Beatrix von Storch's (the AfD's member of the European Parliament) grandfather was Lutz von Krosigk, who was Hitler's Finance Minister. I'm not saying von Storch is sympathetic to Nazis at all. She seemed very decent and classy (It helps that she's also royalty.), and I've never read nor heard anything truly controversial come out of her mouth. However, in a country where people are constantly told to be fearful of your intentions, that sort of familial connection doesn't look good. That isn't fair, but that's just how things are. It's especially true considering to whom the borders are being opened. If they feel guilty, then they should be letting Jews move into Germany and giving them subsidies and cheap land. Instead, they're letting the most antisemitic people in the world move in. The irony of it baffles me to no end.
I use to date an American Jewish woman and when we flew to Israel together, I was not allowed to book Lufthansa or United. No United because of their Frankfurt hub. (now I wouldnt book United because its United. lol)
Just flew UAL to Bozeman, Mt. and back. Had a great couple of flights. No worse than any other airline.
I flew United from Frankfurt to Houston a few years ago. It wasn't bad and wasn't great. They basically gave me the usual mediocrity that I've come to expect from US-based carriers.
United used to be my airline of choice. I made an unreal amount of cross-continental flights on them. My Mileage Plus status was over 1 million miles by the end of all of that. But, they have gone sadly downhill quite a bit from those days.
Looks like AfD came in 2nd in the East Social Democrats fell to a postwar low of 20-21% 13.5% for AfD (which I think = 90 seats) is strongest federal election result for a new party in postwar era. Greens and Linke never got more than 10.7/11.9%
