|
KaneTW posted:Does it really matter? You'll be coverting that side with your body anyway. I don't mean to single you out, but I thought of this thread while reading this Economist article. http://www.economist.com/news/europe/21602741-germans-concede-humour-they-need-professional-help-get-thee-institute
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 11:12
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 13, 2024 11:44 |
|
|
quote:Der deutsche Generalbundesanwalt wird angeblich keine Ermittlungen im Zusammenhang mit den NSA-Skandal einleiten. Grund sei die Unmöglichkeit, an belastbare Quellen beziehungsweise Zeugen zu gelangen. meanwhile the Attorney General of Germany decides to not do any further investigations wrt the whole NSA scandal: http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/NSA-Skandal-Generalbundesanwalt-wird-wohl-nicht-ermitteln-2198941.html
|
|
#
?
May 28, 2014 12:37
|
|
|
Teron D Amun posted:meanwhile the Attorney General of Germany decides to not do any further investigations wrt the whole NSA scandal: http://www.heise.de/newsticker/meldung/NSA-Skandal-Generalbundesanwalt-wird-wohl-nicht-ermitteln-2198941.html Naturally. The federal and EU elections are over, and the public will almost definitely have forgotten about this by the next cycle. No need to make NATO "allies" angry when there are no election gains to be made.
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2014 02:28
|
|
|
Landsknecht posted:Naturally. The federal and EU elections are over, and the public will almost definitely have forgotten about this by the next cycle. Looking at it froma Realpolitik angle, I can see why. You won't get the people responsible anyway, because the US will never hand them over. You can't prove that they did it beyond reasonable doubt either, because Snowden will probably be your only witness willing to talk. If you believe they can demand anyone connected to it to show up in a German court I have a marvelous investment opportunity in an off-shore windpark in the alps to sell to you. So the best you can hope for is a show-trial that achieves nothing but damage diplomatic relations for years to come.
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2014 08:43
|
|
|
ArchangeI posted:Looking at it froma Realpolitik angle, I can see why. You won't get the people responsible anyway, because the US will never hand them over. You can't prove that they did it beyond reasonable doubt either, because Snowden will probably be your only witness willing to talk. If you believe they can demand anyone connected to it to show up in a German court I have a marvelous investment opportunity in an off-shore windpark in the alps to sell to you. So the best you can hope for is a show-trial that achieves nothing but damage diplomatic relations for years to come. That's true. You cannot get those responsible, so better concentrate on making us safe from more NSA spying. Sadly, they aren't doing that either.
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2014 10:04
|
|
|
Excuse me, but have you forgotten about De-Mail? 
|
|
#
?
May 29, 2014 14:09
|
|
|
I know I am late, but as an Austrian I have to express my gratitude at you guys making sure that our interests are represented by Die PARTEI in Brussels. Now let's hope that Sonneborn manages to get their Elitenförderung on the way in the single month he's got.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2014 18:45
|
|
|
I believe you mean Elitenbeförderung, which is what I'm sure Markus Sonneborn will be working hard on during his month in Brussels.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2014 19:18
|
|
|
Torrannor posted:That's true. You cannot get those responsible, so better concentrate on making us safe from more NSA spying. Sadly, they aren't doing that either. Well, I'm going to put my tinfoil hat on here for a second and speculate that such security, assuming it could even be obtained, is not desired by some groups in German politics. Comparatively strong privacy laws limit the domestic work of German intelligence services, and they'd like to get around that. Getting the data from a foreign source without asking too many questions is one convenient way of "laundering" intelligence, thus gaining information that would be illegal to obtain directly. We had a somewhat similar public debate from 2006 onward, with regard to whether German services would be allowed to accept intelligence which may have been obtained under torture.
|
|
#
?
Jun 2, 2014 20:01
|
|
|
Our chinese overlords errected a statue of Engels in Wuppertal (source http://www.welt.de/regionales/duesseldorf/article128955647/China-schenkt-Wuppertal-Friedrich-Engels-Statue.html).
|
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2014 22:00
|
|
|
GaussianCopula posted:Our chinese overlords errected a statue of Engels in Wuppertal (source http://www.welt.de/regionales/duesseldorf/article128955647/China-schenkt-Wuppertal-Friedrich-Engels-Statue.html).
|
|
#
?
Jun 11, 2014 22:05
|
|
|
So what's the deal with this business? Some of my friends in Germany have been talking a bit about it but I've been a bit out of the loop for a while. The traffic minster wants to charge foreigners to use German roads?
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2014 18:19
|
|
|
Captain Frigate posted:So what's the deal with this business? Some of my friends in Germany have been talking a bit about it but I've been a bit out of the loop for a while. The traffic minster wants to charge foreigners to use German roads? The CSU promised it to their xenophobic voters last election.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2014 18:23
|
|
|
Captain Frigate posted:So what's the deal with this business? Some of my friends in Germany have been talking a bit about it but I've been a bit out of the loop for a while. The traffic minster wants to charge foreigners to use German roads? This isn't really that outlandish IMO. Whenever I go to Italy I have to pay tolls on the Autostrada, and I need to buy a Vignette in a huge pile of countries (Austria, Slovenia, Swiss, Czech Rep., are among those that come to mind) if I want to drive on their nice roads.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2014 18:26
|
|
|
Landsknecht posted:This isn't really that outlandish IMO. Whenever I go to Italy I have to pay tolls on the Autostrada, and I need to buy a Vignette in a huge pile of countries (Austria, Slovenia, Swiss, Czech Rep., are among those that come to mind) if I want to drive on their nice roads. The difference is that all people have to pay for those and not only foreigners dirtying aryan roads.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2014 18:32
|
|
|
The difference is that elsewhere you have to buy a vignette as a local too, while for Germans it's "free" and they only want to charge the dirty foreigners. Edit: beaten with strangely similar wording, but yeah, that.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2014 18:33
|
|
|
I still don't know how that is supposed to be implemented without running afoul of either higher national or European law. Apparently the EU commission said they'd be cool with some degrees of distinction between glorious Germans, other Germans and foreigners but I wouldn't put much faith in that.  Lucy Heartfilia posted:The difference is that all people have to pay for those and not only foreigners dirtying aryan roads. Those dirty foreigners haven't paid taxes to build those Aryan roads in the first place. 
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2014 18:37
|
|
|
Isn't their plan to make everyone pay, but lower some traffic taxes at the same time, so a German would pay effectively the same? That probably wouldn't count as an unfair treatment to foreigners either.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2014 18:42
|
|
|
By the way taxes on cars and gas and so on are already enough to support the road infrastructure. But a large amount of those taxes is spent on other things.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2014 18:51
|
|
|
Lucy Heartfilia posted:But a large amount of those taxes is spent on other things. That's because they're taxes not fees or contributions.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2014 18:53
|
|
|
Yes. That argument is a little shallow. Cigarette taxes aren't reserved for treating lung cancer either.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2014 18:57
|
|
|
Yeh, that's true. It's just frustrating, if you consider this and then see that the government is spending not enough on the infrastructure, which will cause dramatically hihger costs in the future.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2014 19:43
|
|
|
Lucy Heartfilia posted:Yeh, that's true. It's just frustrating, if you consider this and then see that the government is spending not enough on the infrastructure, which will cause dramatically hihger costs in the future. I bitch about the roads as much as the next guy but I've been to Scotland a couple of weeks ago and boy let me tell you about bad roads. On the other hand Scotland doesn't even come close in population density. Still, it made me appreciate our glorious aryan roads again. Edit: less drones more roads. Now that's a slogan right there.
|
|
#
?
Jul 8, 2014 19:47
|
|
|
http://www.theonion.com/articles/german-team-hoping-to-lift-nations-spirit-followin,36416/ you did it thanks guys 
|
|
#
?
Jul 9, 2014 09:23
|
|
|
The toll will be collected from everyone. The only "benefit" that German drivers will have is that the car-tax will be lowered by the exact same number. Thats why the year-toll is calculated just like the car-tax.
|
|
|
#
?
Jul 9, 2014 11:14
|
|
|
GaussianCopula posted:The toll will be collected from everyone. The only "benefit" that German drivers will have is that the car-tax will be lowered by the exact same number. Thats why the year-toll is calculated just like the car-tax. Even so it is extremely difficult if not impossible to implement "Everyone pays!" in a manner that does not lead to discrimination, if this article is to be believed.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2014 19:01
|
|
|
Does anyone think German politicians are finally growing a spine or is throwing this CIA guy out of the country just a symbolic thing to appease the public? It's the latter in my opinion.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2014 19:09
|
|
|
Lucy Heartfilia posted:Does anyone think German politicians are finally growing a spine or is throwing this CIA guy out of the country just a symbolic thing to appease the public? It's the latter in my opinion. ""Tagesschau (Click me for a Link!) posted:Bundesaußenminister Frank-Walter Steinmeier hat von den USA nach den jüngsten Spionagefällen mehr Respekt eingefordert. "Diese Zusammenarbeit muss nicht nur von Vertrauen, sie muss auch von gegenseitigem Respekt getragen sein", sagte der Minister.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2014 19:11
|
|
|
Hahaha. That's just awesome.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2014 19:42
|
|
|
Keep in mind that the politicians themselves were also the target of a bit more invasive espionage, so I think some of their anger is genuine. But it's mostly for show, they know that the partnership with the USA is too valuable. On the other hand, America not reacting at all is probably intolerable, from a PR standpoint. They have to get some sort of reaction/apology/pledge to stop certain acts of spying out of the USA, if only to appease the voters.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2014 19:44
|
|
|
Lucy Heartfilia posted:Does anyone think German politicians are finally growing a spine or is throwing this CIA guy out of the country just a symbolic thing to appease the public? It's the latter in my opinion. its the latter, Merkel even phoned Obama before making it public to ask for permission from her superiors and then they found someone who wanted to go back to the USA anyway of course none of this matters because WIR WERDEN WELTMEISTER ES KOMMT NACH HAUSE OLE
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2014 23:35
|
|
|
Oh, of course. Germany is a good dog after all.
|
|
#
?
Jul 11, 2014 23:37
|
|
|
Seriously, nothing confuses Russians more then how ridiculously subservient powerfull nations like Germany and Japan are to the USA. Russia regularly needs to make considerable concession to keep Belarus or Kazakhstan "friendly", while the USA can do whatever it wants to Germany without any serious consequences. And Germany/Japan are a lot more powerfull compared to the USA than Belarus/Kazakhstan are compared to Russia. Der Postillion summed it up quite well with http://www.der-postillon.com/2014/07/nach-us-spionage-bundesregierung-plant.html and http://www.der-postillon.com/2014/07/ubrige-623-us-spione-in-deutschland.html#more
|
|
#
?
Jul 12, 2014 10:28
|
|
|
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/rueckzug-von-merkel-kanzlerin-erwaegt-offenbar-freiwilligen-ruecktritt-a-980733.html#ref=rss Merkel would step down when she wants to and not wait until she loses an election and a possible replacement would be...Flintenuschi von der Leyen 
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2014 12:56
|
|
Teron D Amun posted:http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/rueckzug-von-merkel-kanzlerin-erwaegt-offenbar-freiwilligen-ruecktritt-a-980733.html#ref=rss Well, I guess every politician wants that. It's a headline to sell the magazine which has a portray of her in it because of her 60th birthday. Calm down, Mutti is here to stay.
|
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2014 13:05
|
|
|
Mightypeon posted:Seriously, nothing confuses Russians more then how ridiculously subservient powerfull nations like Germany and Japan are to the USA. Russia regularly needs to make considerable concession to keep Belarus or Kazakhstan "friendly", while the USA can do whatever it wants to Germany without any serious consequences. And Germany/Japan are a lot more powerfull compared to the USA than Belarus/Kazakhstan are compared to Russia. I'm pretty sure the average German has no higher opinion of the USA than your typical Swede. The difference lies in the fact that both our governments are run by right wing lobbyists which tend to run contrary to popular opinion, especially in matters of foreign policy.
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2014 14:00
|
|
|
Teron D Amun posted:http://www.spiegel.de/politik/deutschland/rueckzug-von-merkel-kanzlerin-erwaegt-offenbar-freiwilligen-ruecktritt-a-980733.html#ref=rss I wanted Merkel to lose for three elections in a row and it didn't happen. I wouldn't be surprised if she wins the next Bundestagswahl as well. She is here to stay. And I don't fear von der Leyen. Others failed at reforming the Bundeswehr before her, she could be out of the picture long before Merkel decides to step down.
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2014 14:18
|
|
|
Postorder Trollet89 posted:I'm pretty sure the average German has no higher opinion of the USA than your typical Swede. The difference lies in the fact that both our governments are run by right wing lobbyists which tend to run contrary to popular opinion, especially in matters of foreign policy. The left-wing governments Germany had in the past were just as much subservient to the United States. For example it was a Red-Green coalition that ordered the first actual combat deployment of German troops since 1955, because the United States really wanted to go on a military adventure. (That in all likehood illegal under international law to boot.)
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2014 14:21
|
|
|
Randler posted:The left-wing governments Germany had in the past were just as much subservient to the United States. For example it was a Red-Green coalition that ordered the first actual combat deployment of German troops since 1955, because the United States really wanted to go on a military adventure. (That in all likehood illegal under international law to boot.) I wasn't politically interested at the time, are you really saying that the CDU and FDP didn't vote for the deployment of troops? I have a hard time believing it. Besides, I don't think that subservience to the USA was the main factor, if I recall correctly many Serbs even blamed Germany for the start of the Yugoslav wars because we were the first to officially recognize Slovenian independence.
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2014 15:16
|
|
|
|
| # ? May 13, 2024 11:44 |
|
|
Torrannor posted:I wasn't politically interested at the time, are you really saying that the CDU and FDP didn't vote for the deployment of troops? No. I'm saying that it was Schröder's left-wing administration who made the initial decision to participate in Kosovo war. And without that administration's decision to deploy troops the matter would not have been entered the Bundestag at all.
|
|
#
?
Jul 13, 2014 15:25
|
|