Eighty Percent

This is what happens when you give in to the dark side of 80ties politics, Thatcherism, and subsequently turn your entire economy into a rentier system for "outside investors" (read: russian oligarchs) and some geezer who owns 25 dilapidated rowhouses in the outskirts of London with no central heating or indoor plumbing.

I would gloat but the one thing saving my country from the same fate, a constant instream of migrants, is also driving small business tyrants insane enough that they're trying to carry a new fascist party into government.

In summation, Climate Stalin now, please.

Nightmare country

Boycott Eurovision

I call bullshit. You can't model a national economy. Why else do we have BUSINESS EXPERTS who sacrifice the goat to John Smith and read the growth forecast from its liver and the inflation index from its heart? How do you explain that, pinko commie hippies?

Incredible. They're so close to getting it.

the Guardian

Germany is a good place to be Jewish. Unless, like me, you’re a Jew who criticises Israel | Deborah Feldman

The pro-Israel political consensus has shut out any dissenting voices – as I found in a TV debate with the vice-chancellor, says author Debo

Suddenly, everything was clear to me. The same people who had been demanding that every Muslim in Germany condemn the Hamas attacks in order to receive permission to say anything else at all were fine with civilian deaths as long as the victims were people with opposing views. The German government’s unconditional support for Israel doesn’t only prevent it from condemning the deaths of civilians in Gaza – it also allows it to ignore the way dissenting Jews in Germany are being thrown under the same bus as they are in Israel.

The whole concept of "traffic engineering" is flawed to its core. I'm not going to act like the EU, where I'm from, necessarily has better design and accommodates pedestrians and cyclists better (I can think of several positive and negative examples just where I live) but just designing for maximum car capacity and literally no other consideration borders on criminally negligent.

And I think we can be content that self-driving turned out to be largely dead on arrival, because the far too many incidents of pedestrians being driven over by test vehicles have carried the same stink of victim blaming the TikTok video addresses,

the things that are reported matters. the language used matters. what is left out of the story matters.

Ach wie schön, die beruhigende Existenzielle Leere des Kapitalismus.Macht richtig Weihnachtsstimmung.

Du bist unterwegs in deinem Auto. Weil du nix besseres hast ist das Radio an. Die nächste volle Stunde nähert sich, und die Radiowerbung beginnt. Begleitet von einem nervtötenden Jingle verkündet eine Stimme - oder mehrere Stimmen? Du bist dir nicht sicher - “̸̖̤̮̹͓͑"̵̩̝̼͊͆̈̊C̵̮͚̣̤̩̈́á̴̱̄ŗ̸̝̑̽̽̓g̸͍̝̹͂̾̃̌l̷͖̞̐̃ä̶͖̖̪͍́̂̉̿͑s̵̞̜͕͍̀̈́͝s̶̳͕̺̍̓͑͘ ̷͔̱̣͗̊̀̀͂ȩ̷̤͉͉̬̓̎̀͝l̸̨̡̻͚̗̇́̀į̸͚̪̈́͌m̶͈̉͌͊̌̕ị̷̥͖̅̎ǹ̵̛̯̜͙̤͛i̶͈͖̔͘e̸̤̘̦̻̬̾͊r̵̮̲̹̻͍̓t̴̡̛͔̟̭͉̀̍̀͝,̵͈̩̦̋̏͜ ̶̘̯͉̥̽̂͜Ċ̷̠͉̻a̶̡̱̠͑̀͜r̶̭̣̥͙͋͆̇g̴͇͓̕͝ḽ̵̩̀̓ą̶͎͚͎̙̽̓̂͠s̵̜̗̰̆͆̃͝s̵͕̖̹̤̙̃ ̵̯͗̾͆͆l̵͎̻͔̩̓̓͆̕͜ọ̴̢̢͎̈̂́́̓̾͜s̵̢̨̘̾̅͘c̶̣͔̬̽͑̀h̷̓̓́ͅt̷̞̝̝̩̐͋ ̷̧̥̳̳̓̐́̋̕a̶͓͕̗̔̈́̇ư̷̧̟̹̿̒̋s̷̺̱͍͛̾̐̑͠!̵̖̍͒͌́̈"̶͕͍͈̏̅͊̽. Bevor du wirklich genervt sein kannst ist die Werbung schon wieder vorbei. In der nächsten Werbung führt ein schwäbischer Mann ein Selbstgespräch über die Vorzüge von Seitenbacher Hanfmüsli oder Bergsteigeröl in dem Audioäquivalent von einem leeren Raum. Bei der nächsten Werbung entscheidest du dich, das Radio auszuschalten. Bevor du das tun kannst schreit dir ein Drecksbalg noch “D A N N  G E H  D O C H  Z U  N E T T O!” hinterher. Dann herrscht wunderbare Stille in deinem Auto.

No shit. Die Züge haben den Schnee gesehen und sind vor Schreck erstarrt.

Ich hab den heutigen Fahrplan verlegt

Als Kinder waren ich und meine damaligen Freunde allesamt dem Anschein nach auf einen möglichst frühen, möglichst spektakulären Tod scharf. Also entschlossen wir uns, am 1. Januar Blindgänger vom Silvesterfeuerwerk zu suchen. Knallerbsen die nicht geplatzt waren, vergessene Packungen mit Feuerteufeln, was auch immer.

Wir fanden auch einen Raketenkopf, der nie gezündet hatte. Und da wir scheinbar keinen Überlebensinstinkt hatten, steckten wir das Teil einfach ein. Im Garten meines Freundes bewarfen wir uns dann erst mal mit unseren Feuerteufeln. Was gut angepasste Zehnjährige halt so machen, idk.

Dann wollten wir unser Highlight hochjagen: den faustgroßen Raketenkopf. Die Lunte war nicht mehr vorhanden, also zog einer von uns ein Feuerzeug, hielt es an die Rakete und-

Intermezzo: Das Wohnzimmer meines Freundes hatte sehr schöne, bodentiefe Fenster zum Garten hin. Da saßen unsere Eltern und kippten sich wahrscheinlich obszöne Mengen Filterkaffee rein. In einem Moment erwähnen sie noch, wie schön die Kinder draußen spielen (wir versuchten gerade Paul einen Feuerteufel in die Kapuze zu stecken), im nächsten Moment sieht man durch die Fenster nur noch eine Rauchwolke, wie man sie sonst nur als billigen Filmeffekt kennt.

Ich möchte mir vorstellen dass sich durch den Rauch hindurch kleine Kinderhände ans Fenster drückten.

-unsere Rakete war instantly, sofort, null Verzögerung, explodiert. Sah wahrscheinlich spektakulär aus. Wir konnten's in dem Moment irgendwie nicht wertschätzen. Mag an dem plötzlichen Tinnitus gelegen haben.

Zum Glück haben wir alle unsere Finger behalten, niemand wurde noch mehr geschädigt als er es ohnehin schon war, und unsere Eltern waren nur ganz kurz hysterisch.

Fazit: Lasst eure Blagen nicht draußen spielen, sie könnten detonieren.

What's happening in Lützerath?

Lützerath is a small village in the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, near Düsseldorf and Cologne.

The energy company RWE wants to demolish the village in order to expand the Garzweiler open-cast mine, despite several studies showing that it’s not necessary. Demolishing Lützerath and mining the coal located in the ground below would release millions of tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, making it impossible for Germany to adhere to its climate protection targets and the Paris Agreement.

Police and RWE employees are currently trying to evict the people occupying Lützerath by force.

What can you do to help?

Go to Lützerath and resist the eviction by civil disobedience. Police and RWE employees are currently preparing to close off the village so try to get there before January 9th. Here’s a packing list and here are directions. If you want to bring additional donations in kind, they have a list with things that are currently needed.

There is also a protest camp being set up in nearby Keyenberg. It opens on January 9th but you can already go there now if you want to help.

There is a big protest planned in Lützerath on January 14th 2023 at 12 noon. Several Fridays for Future groups have organised coaches and group tickets.

Additionally, there are protests planned in cities all over Germany today and in the next few days

If you don’t want to or can’t take part in direct action, you can donate:

Account Holder: Lützerath Lebt

IBAN: DE24 4306 0967 1204 1870 01

Reference: Lützi Lebt

They also have a PayPal set up but prefer payment via bank transfer to avoid paying fees to Elon Musk.

@amtrak-official I have good news for you... Ginkgo is one of those species that spontaneously changes its' sex in adolescence. The tree has the capacity to transsexualize itself, much to chargrin of shopping mall parking lots and tacky plazas.

It's also one of the few species that can survive an atomic bomb blast and go on to live 120+ years after.

Fun Fact, if you're in Philadelphia, your free street tree from the city government can be a cherry blossom or dogwood, so you can get pretty flowers for free