Stephen Weil or Elon Musk, who to start this wake up call with? Let’s decide this time for the social-democratic regional politician who, according to the latest polls, has a good chance of winning the state elections in Lower Saxony again on Sunday. His SPD would therefore come to 31 percent, the CDU to 28 percent, the FDP would have to worry about returning to parliament.
Prime Minister Weil played a key role in the hour-long federal-state talks on Putin’s burden-sharing yesterday. The constant talk was as fruitful as an archery competition in which clay pigeons are thrown.
In addition to bus and train tickets or housing benefits, the items for which the federal states are hoping for financial aid also include expenses for refugees. This is where the leader of the opposition and the CDU, Friedrich Merz, 66, found the top issue on his unstoppable path to the chancellor candidacy, his “signature agenda”.:
He had just had to apologize like a schoolboy for fact-free statements about “social tourism” from the Ukraine, now he follows up with the “pull factor”.
The very large social network in Germany, according to the theory suitable for beer tents, would only attract refugees and migrants from many countries. Here, too, empirical evidence is missing – but not a lurking, scratching, shadow-boxing candidate for the chancellorship, who is far more popular: Markus Söder, the undead of the Union. Merz could feel warned by George Bernard Shaw: “Man can indeed reach the highest peaks, but he cannot stay there for long.”
(Photo: IMAGO/Political Moments)
Funding rounds like the one in Berlin are routine. Much more serious is that the federal government invests far too little in the future. A study by the Institute for the World Economy in Kiel, which is available to us, brings explosive things to light:
- Only 6.4 percent of the federal budget (30 billion euros) goes into education and basic research, even though they have positive effects on the economy.
- More than 40 percent goes to social causes.
- A good 57 percent was redistribution expenditure, at least around 270 billion euros. These include pensions or unemployment benefits, but also subsidies and transfers to the federal states.
- Pension commitments and interest payments add up to another 21.6 billion.
Study author Claus-Friedrich Laaser: “The accusation that Germany is neglecting social spending has definitely been refuted, they are by far the most important spending item in the long term.”
Incidentally, the Center for European Economic Research (ZEW) comes to the conclusion that the “future quota”, the proportion of funds for goals with medium or long-term benefits, is a modest 18.3 percent.
So much for German politics. But now to the “global megalomania” department, to the software luminary Elon Musk. After e-cars and satellites, he also wants to dominate the media world. He now wants to buy the short message service Twitter for 44 billion dollars, after a long legal banter and subject to uncertain financing commitments.
So he would have the perfect tool for manipulating opinions and creating interpretative sovereignty. Donald Trump should be allowed to publish? Clear! Cherson should vote again on Putin under UN aegis? Go ahead!
In the 19th century of bourgeois emancipation, what is happening around the Tesla rampage would have meant that someone owned a monopoly printing works in cities such as Paris, London and Berlin, and that all the people read the newspapers that were produced there.
The privatization of public spaces thanks to digitization is happening at an increasing speed – and Germany is seriously discussing a book that an allegedly arrogant, opinion-suppressing press castigates as the “fourth estate”. Perhaps one also listens to Jürgen Habermas: “Social networks endanger democracy.”
The reach king Donald Trump, who is currently blocked on Twitter involved the Supreme Court, the highest American court, in the fight with the FBI over confiscated secrets.
The ex-president soon wants to get the mostly conservative judges, whom he conveniently appointed himself, to have the documents confiscated from his Florida estate handed over to the special representative for the affair. Then Trump could quickly reclaim them.
A US court had previously sided with the US Department of Justice and against Trump. The entertainer, who is interested in a new presidential candidacy in 2024, apparently wants to lengthen the process.
Eight months ago you were asked in social circles: Is Putin attacking Ukraine? Today, on such occasions, one wants to know: how does he feel about nuclear weapons?
Armaments researcher Hans Møller Kristensen said in an interview with the Handelsblatt that it was impossible to predict: “Ukraine’s military offensive to liberate occupied territories does not threaten the existence of the Russian state. But Putin puts it the same way to justify the possible use of nuclear weapons.”
After a nuclear mission, he would be “the absolute pariah of the international community”, and China or India could then turn their backs on him. According to Kristensen, however, he doesn’t believe that in such a case the USA and NATO would react with nuclear weapons: “The West wants to preserve the nuclear taboo.” By the way: Putin is already a pariah.
And then there are winter sports games, which are usually held in cities with snow. At the winter competitions, which the Asian federation has awarded for 2029, the winning location Neom in Saudi Arabia does not exist any more than ice molecules in the sand.
The reason for the award: “The deserts and mountains are becoming the playground for winter sports.” Just as the winter break flatters the ego of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, the 2022 World Cup is serving the status requirements of neighboring Qatar.
In protest against human rights violations and ecological damage there, the city administration of Paris is now declaring that World Cup games will not be shown publicly (“public viewing”) and that no fan zones will be set up.
This is noticeable as Qatar owns local giants Paris Saint-Germain (PSG). Marseille, Lille, Bordeaux, Reims and Nancy are also on an anti-Qatar course. And ex-top footballer Eric Cantona doesn’t even want to watch a World Cup game: “Let’s be honest with ourselves. This World Cup is pointless. The only meaning of the event is money.”
I wish you a meaningful day with lots of joie de vivre.
It greets you cordially
Her
Hans Jürgen Jakobs
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