Free Republic

German draft ended in 2011. They re-branded the whole military into a US-like structure...better living conditions, better pay, investment into recruitment. Up until Covid, I would say it was a success (not great, but not bad).

They want to increase billet numbers and the present trouble is that there just isn’t that much interest brewing. Adding to it...mild recession effects going on, so tax revenue isn’t there to offer incentives.

They are convinced in some ways that the Fin-example...large reserve force/small active duty force....probably is the path to the future. But politically...harshly divided at present, with higher priorities.

I would add two observations: (1) If Trump wins, I see a movement of US forces out of Europe (not quitting NATO, just bringing the troops ‘home’). (2) At present, I’d say Russia is dismantling its military and economy at a rapid pace. The oil/natural gas sales? Slumped to some degree without western companies in the maintenance of the delivery system. Even if China would trade for oil/natural gas...distribution is now a open discussion. Rebuilding all the tank losses? You can figure two decades of taxation involved and Russians grumbling over decaying infrastructure.

Not to stir the pot too much, but if you look at German companies looking at production outside of the country (moving jobs and manufacturing where energy is cheaper)...there’s a problem brewing. BASF probably won’t be a pure-German company within 3 years. There’s a job crisis brewing and some kind of economic spiral developing.

What she is thinking of in the design....is the Finland example where they keep a very small active duty army, and they have a huge reserve force ready to go.

As for the Putin-threat? Other than the nuke-threat (Germans want to rebuild all the bunkers as well), there’s just not going to be much to threaten anyone with the lessening number of tanks, APCs, helicopters, etc.

NATO last week talked up the idea of giving 40-billion dollars of military stuff each year to the Ukraine. If they do that...they will just financially weaken their own military budget.

Such laws/rules exist in Europe already. Germany already went down this path in 2020...allowing credit organizations/banks to hold the currency.

There is a fairly complex negativity going on in NY City...maybe for a decade now. I can’t see why any Fortune-500 company would keep it’s headquarters there. With the collapse of real estate properties...I would imagine most remaining, have a view of exiting.

Tax revenue? They got problems.

The subway system? In decay since the 1960s.

Crime? No prosecution going on, unless you are deemed an enemy of the state/city.

Central Park landscape? Dangerous and not a place to venture after dark.

Covid simply turned the exit light on.

Ottomen/Turks never seem to be the problem-children.

Always ends up being mostly Afghanis...a few Iraqis, handful of Iranians and some Tunisians.

Of the fifty-odd events over the past decade...all involve men (not women), and there’s only one single event that involves a male over the age of 40 (documented paranoid schizophrenic).

Germans spend a hell of a lot of effort ‘watching’ on social media pages to identify people to be on the ‘watch list’ (same list for far-right wing, environmental crazies, far-left).

The weirdest I’d say...still stands out...a 12-year old radicalized kid planned out some nail-bombing, and failed. On 2nd attempt, failed but got caught. Authorities wanted him removed from the house and sent for a mental exam. Kid arrives at the facility, and within hours...the boss of the clinic calls them to come and pick up the kid. He considers the kid a threat and dangerous for staff members. The kid ends back with the family, who now voice that they are fearful of him. So in the end...the kid was put into a guarded facility (just by himself) with rotating guidance counselor. About a month or two into this...someone notes that one of the counselors was possibly a radical himself....so the whole plan was revised again.

Would agree....it’s a ‘status’ which Biden thinks will lessen votes.

The problem is...as Republicans/Independents/Democrats look at the new Trump ‘status’...they also look at Joe Biden, Hunter Biden, and the amount of corruption/crime they’ve accomplished...who has more criminal accomplishments? Well...the Biden team.

This status for Trump probably even draws one-third of black votes...as they see him as being relative to their position in life.

I just don’t think Joe and his crew really thought out this strategy too far.

Where it will matter is when they poll Chicago, Philly, and NY City...finding one-third of black voters got up this weekend and walked away from Biden the D-Party. There’s probably a rush of polling taking place and asking the question...what happened here?

I’ll predict as sentencing takes place (July), Illinois is now in play and possibly a win for Trump.

In the late 60s, as these began to arrive in small towns across the country...I would agree, it was a luxury still at that point. Maybe 3 or 4 times a year.

Mid-1970s...it evolved a bit. By the late-1980s...it was no longer a luxury. With McDonalds/BK adding breakfast...the whole game changed.

But the minute that a menu-dinner got up to $20 a person....we’ve entered another evolutionary stage. I think about one-third of the burger ‘shops’ that exist today....will be shut-down/cleared by the end of 2025. The business model won’t work under the current economic mess. Same way with movie theaters who were charging $15 a ticket and $20 for pop-corn/soda.

2018, I spent three weeks in South Africa (half of that in Cape Town area).

From various conversations...blacks and whites, I came to three conclusions.

1. Early 1990s...modern infrastructure management and maintenance basically ended. Doesn’t matter if you talk national or local...the new leadership siphoned off funds, mismanaged programs, and most everything that you need (water, public transportation, electricity, phone, etc) is screwed up. The national airlines (remarkable operation throughout the 1960s to 1990s)...is crapped out and making zero profit.

2. Tons of commercial opportunities but everything is micromanaged to filter corruption into the system.

3. There’s just no one I ran into who could say a kind word on the ANC. They all agreed there was a element of the Apartheid gov’t that was corrupt. They also had a front-row seat for the Zimbabwe ‘mess’ created, and they don’t want that type of event in S-A.

Great place but you continued to have to watch your back. The safari-park area had armed guards, and they weren’t there to protect from the animals.

One might assume it wasn’t classified....other than day/time of some Obama-trip, or some VIP guest visit.

Maybe it was the secret CornPop data?

Been watching this ‘hype’ for past month. Three odd aspects. First, this pro-Islam group mostly hangs out in Hamburg. You don’t see this protest-movement in Frankfurt, Stuttgart, Bremen, etc. Second, based on what the cops say (not the politicians)...this is mostly 2nd/3rd generation immigrants (born in Germany), and mostly male. Third, just seems to be a lot of propaganda/BS, and seems to be influenced/paid-for from beyond the German border (doubt it’s China or Russia sponsoring this).

Oddly, there is a political Muslim-party creation...18 months prior to the fall 2025 German national election. Some people have suggested that if the Islam population (those who are citizens) hung together....they’d influence and have around 6-to-8-percent of the vote for that party. If you look at past elections...there’s never been a political platform by any German party that dwelled upon some Islam-theme. The party in question has fair amount of support from Turkey. Maybe that’s the entire game-plan....have some influence over German politics in the end.

I can see a scenario where the cops arrive....ask 3 or 4 questions...then leave, and George dies ten minutes later in the SUV with his two ‘friends’.

About 3 months after the death...some interview came up with a retired cop from the town. He said that the nightclub that both George and the cop (now in prison) worked for...had a on-going crisis thing with constant drug connections...maybe going back a full decade. Some Lebanese gang situation.

The suggestion was that no one wanted George’s connection and the drug stuff to lead back to nightclub.

Valid point. From my mil-years...I remember almost every base assignment in the US...finding two papers offered. The only time you could ever tell they were ‘different’...every two years in the election cycle...they staked out positions.

Somewhere around 2000 to 2004...you could tell print-media (newspapers, Ti*e, Newsweak, Nat’l Geo) was dying off. I remember stepping into a dentist office...attempting to read Reader’s Digest, and suddenly feeling a propaganda moment.

The last time I visited the US...going to my home-town and attempting to read the local paper...it was a mess. Daily newspaper in the 1970s had 24 pages of content. Modern day content maxes at 8 pages. You can read it in 10 minutes. Other than the local page and Obit page...it’s worthless, but you pay 3 times what you paid in 1978.

Valid point....insurance companies will figure this out, and raise rates....so you walk in for a simple 8-minute procedure and find that it’s $4,000, with a quarter of that involving insurance coverage for the doctor himself, or the clinic.

This will be turned into a 60-second commercial for Trump. Biden’s folks never grasp how this stupidity drains votes.

I’d agree...going back to 1970s, this has been the strategy of all incoming goods.

With her size, I’d say its near 50-percent chance she won’t make it past 45.

In the running presently (he’s doing a lot of campaign chatter) is Gov Newsom of California.

I’d go and suggest that Michelle Obama will be scheduled for a opening speech, and she might be ‘drafted’.

Beyond them....AOC might be a remote possibility.

If Newsom had any success stories...would be a easy sales job. But I can’t think of a single story that I’d go and brag about for California for the past decade. Michelle Obama? Three-line resume?

Based on social media chatter....I’d say around Chicago presently....nearly half of adult blacks are persuaded to vote for Trump. Entirely possible for Illinois to be a Trump win by November. This whole migration ‘gimmick’ was not clearly thought through and considered on impact to the present population.

For reference...just an odd part of this story...Crown-Prince Ferdinand was actually the 3rd Crown-Prince and was not supposed to be in line for the King’s job.

Crown-Prince number one...Rudoph was set to be the guy, and was actually married. Somewhere around 1887, he got tangled up in a sexed-up relationship with a 17-year-old Baroness and was overly consumed with her. About a year into this relationship...his handlers told him to drop it. He couldn’t. He ended up at some hunting lodge...with the lover...and both committed suicide.

Set to be next king was Karl Ludwig, but he ended up with Typhoid Fever, and died.

So Ferdinand was stuck with the job. Interesting thing about him....from his teens, he was consumed with passion for hunting. He probably averaged 300 days a year on hunts throughout Europe. I doubt if you could find anyone in Europe who was more capable with a rifle than this guy.