Dear Friends, I realize I have not written in a while but during the Corona Virus pandemic I have been doing regular Posts on my FaceBook page. I plan on returning to this Blog and posting here again soon.
It took ten days for a poltroon French government to step up and defend the rights of a sixteen-year-old girl faced with death threats for exercising her freedom of speech.
Munich, Germany: This visit to Munich was another reminder to me at how criminal it is to bomb civilians and cultural targets, pardon war criminals and carry out preventive strikes and targeted murders. Those who come to wonderful Munich should understand what we all lost from stupid kids with armies breaking irreparable windows. The Allies hanged thousands of Germans and Japanese for what they had done themselves and we continue to do it.
The Germans are a funny bunch. Germany is certainly Europe’s most successful nation and yet probably among the most stressed of its people. Just a few of my observations as we enter an uncertain 2020. Oh mein Gott!
Stuttgart– I must give credit where credit is due: the Germans listen to each other. I think this is in part because German grammar throws their verbs at the very end of every sentence which forces you to wait for the conclusion to know what they are really trying to say before you can yell back. For those who don’t understand German, it is easy to think they only discuss serious things which, in fact, is not necessarily wrong.
Paris: If you were wondering why France is in such financial shit, you needn’t look further than the way Le Crédit Lyonnais treats its customers.
Are French banks worse than French mechanics?
November 22, I go to the ATM at my local Le Crédit Lyonnais, Agence Butte aux Cailles, bank and request 1,500 euros to fill the Christmas stockings of the family for Grand Pa Fred. The ATM gave me 120 euros and TWO, yes TWO, receipts indicating I received 1,500 euros which were duly deducted from my account.
I am afraid the impeachment proceedings in DC have as much to do with rewriting history to make war as they do about getting rid of Donald Trump. The fact the press refuses to challenge the anti-Russian hysteria and set the facts straight is worrisome. Could hate for Trump be so great they are ready to stumble into yet another war?
France: The Yellow Vests movement is gaining new momentum one year later. Students, Hospital Employees, Transportation Workers and more are also protesting. Much needed reforms are on hold. The economy staggers. Social cohesion is being torn at the seams. Could this be the beginning of a perfect storm?
Pull The Plug. Nail Its Coffin Shut!
In an interview with the Economist published November 7, French President Emanuel Macron said: “NATO is brain dead.” After nearly three years of attacks by President Trump and a rapprochement of NATO member Turkey with Russia, here yet is another nail in the coffin of an alliance that should have died with the fall of the Warsaw Pact and the Soviet Union in 1991.
Paris: They are getting too old, or too fat, to build barricades, their hands too soft to dig up cobblestones, but they still have the voice to sing to the glory of those who fought to defend the world’s first workers democracy, a two month long experiment in 1871 which ended in a blood bath: The Paris Commune.
Every September for the past 15 years, the Association “Friends of the Paris Commune 1871” organizes a block party at Place de La Commune de Paris – 1871 (where else?) in the 13th district of Paris. They drink blood red wine made deeper with cassis, curse the Versaillais and Adolphe Thiers who sent the French Army to massacre the people and generally enjoy a Fall afternoon.
Messkirch, Germany: If you have nothing planned between April and November over the next 40 years or so, and would like to live and work in the early Middle Ages, there is an association in the Schwäbische Alb (Schwabian Alps) that has a job for you. But they will take you as well if you only have a week to spare.
KazoDaily 