The Off Topic Topic

[Zanza]

Do you know any Ossis personally Zanza?

Good question. Just thought about. I know quite a few former Ossis that moved West, know some Wessis that moved East and know Ossis from East Berlin and Potsdam - which is not representative for East Germany. But I can't think of any personal acquaintance with someone living in rural East Germany.

[Zanza]

One thing that seems to distinguish the AfD from similar parties in other countries is that with growing success it does not moderate to become a viable government coalition partner, but rather radicalizes further becoming more and more a nazi party. Their leaders in both Saxony and Thuringia are straight Nazis.

[Admiral Yi]

Two Marines attacked in Izmir Turkey while on shore leave.

[Syt]

Views of voters in Thuringia about the AfD:



"I like that they want to limit immigration of foreigners and refugees."
"They say what other parties aren't allowed to say."
"With Björn Höcke as Minister President, democracy and rule of law would be in danger."
"Other parties should decide on a case by case basis whether to work with the AfD."
"Cares about local problems more than other parties."

Main reasons of AfD voters to vote for them:


Immigration
Crime/Security
Education
Social Security
Economic Development
Ukraine/Russia

Keeping in mind that Thuringia (and Saxony) have one of (the?) lowerst share of foreigners in Germany.


AfD votes by employment status:


All, Blue Collar Workers, White Collar Workers, Self Employed, Retired

[Norgy]

So the spread is quite high. Looks much like how the Progress Party vote is divided class-wise here. And the issues seem the same.

Thing is, without immigration, be it migrant workers or asylum seekers, the population of Norway would be in decline. Our age distribution is starting to look like a very top heavy Christmas tree.

I noticed in Berlin that it's a very multi-cultural city, even around the touristy places. Oslo is basically unrecognisable to me after 15 years of not living there, and most changes have been for the better. I do pity those trying to buy a home there, though.

I mentioned immigration. That does not mean I am anti-immigration, and I think we have done quite well in spreading immigrants around the country. But our methods of returning those who get their asylum status revoked is starting to look very nasty.
A few Iraqi Kurds were returned with a police escort on a chartered jet with... 25 police officers.   
The three of them had all been in Norway for five years or more, but their ID papers were not "good enough".
I am not sure how comfortable I am with Norway's image abroad being one of humanitarian aid and being good guys when we allow these things to happen. It's not like we lack for space.

[Josquius]

Time for this old beauty. Looking forward to a German version.



Its not immigration that is the problem. Its the belief in immigration amongst those who have basically never met an immigrant.

[Duque de Bragança]

I wonder what happened to the beacon of social democracy, the SPD. Well, apart from Schröder taking people's pensions away a few decades ago.

The AfD does not, at least to me, to be a mere protest vote, but rather a return to a more nationalist "blut und boden" Germany. And while that might bring more autobahns and places for minorities to meet up in rather constricted or concentrated spaces for long term relationships, I would hate to see heirs of the OAS, the MSI and the NSDAP run middle-Europe.

But I think we need to realise that there is a reason for this, besides economic downturns. It actually is immigration. Europe is receiving the bulk of the poor, huddled masses, yearning not so much to be free as to create a career in a dual economy where your kebab shop or laundry also whitewashes someone's drug money.

To be honest, I never though AfD would ever gain much traction once the Syrian refugee crisis was ended with that twat Erdogan holding about a million of them hostage to pressure the EU into concessions. Yet here they are.

+1 to you for the true matrix of Jean Marie Le Pen's FN, which recruited left and right; Le Pen had pro-muslim and pro-zionist stances back then though not pro Algerian independence of course.
As for the AfD, formerly the professors' party, I don't think they care at all about French Algeria, the raison d'être of the OAS. 
Not disagreeing with the rest.

[Jacob]

Was at a wedding the other day and one of the other guests was a German lawyer (living in Frankfurt). We discussed politics for a bit - she's a Liberal party stalwart (self described as socially liberal) and said that the SPD is thoroughly corrupt - more so than the other parties (on the CD she said that their corruption is more open - you know that they'll favour a specific corporate client network).

How does that sound to our German posters? Accurate?

[Sheilbh]

There is nothing that makes me quite so old man shouting at the clouds as thinking that BBC News (World) doesn't need to be tweeting this:

Square profile picture
BBC News (World)
@BBCWorld
Brat summer officially over, declares Charli XCX

You're state funded. You don't need to be relevant

[Josquius]

It reads like the kind of half thought out nonsense you'd see on the front page of a 2024 newspaper prop in a film from the 80s.

[HVC]

There is nothing that makes me quite so old man shouting at the clouds as thinking that BBC News (World) doesn't need to be tweeting this:

Square profile picture
BBC News (World)
@BBCWorld
Brat summer officially over, declares Charli XCX

You're state funded. You don't need to be relevant

Alternatively this is what happens when you give control of your social media accounts to the interns and new hires

[Tamas]

Her PR team tweeting about Harris when they did was a genius marketing move, ever since that the media pretends that she and the whole brat thing is relevant.

[garbon]

There is nothing that makes me quite so old man shouting at the clouds as thinking that BBC News (World) doesn't need to be tweeting this:

Square profile picture
BBC News (World)
@BBCWorld
Brat summer officially over, declares Charli XCX

You're state funded. You don't need to be relevant

I do wonder what it will be like when I see her in November and it will have been so long since her album was a "thing."

[garbon]

Her PR team tweeting about Harris when they did was a genius marketing move, ever since that the media pretends that she and the whole brat thing is relevant.

Welcome to pop music?

[garbon]

There is nothing that makes me quite so old man shouting at the clouds as thinking that BBC News (World) doesn't need to be tweeting this:

Square profile picture
BBC News (World)
@BBCWorld
Brat summer officially over, declares Charli XCX

You're state funded. You don't need to be relevant

Actually I doubt it is that deep as this article is listed in first set of articles for England on BBC News site. I'm sure Alice Wyatt may be lovely but not sure why top news that a teen whose illness prevented her from going to college didn't give up on life.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c4gd829nw67o

Teen turned away from college starts baking business

A teenager who was told she would not be able to study for her dream job in healthcare because of her own illness has turned her hand to baking.

Alice Wyatt, from Poole in Dorset, had been diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS), which caused her to miss a lot of her school lessons.

The 18-year-old began learning to be an occupational therapist at college so she could help others who had the same condition as her.

But after being told she was "too medically unfit" to continue, she started a business designing and making cakes.

...