Friday 26th of April 2024
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Dorothy of Gustaphianaland...

union advert in germany

Elections in two countries could give the temperature of the democratic mood of people around the planet. The most important of the two, is in Germany. Merkel the Polish/West German who got her “superb” industrial education in East Germany is bound to get back into power, except things could turn sour like a touted Hillary Victory. Former East Germans do not like her refugee policy in general. One has to say here that according to some bitter West Germans, once the iron curtain fell, the East Germans became lazy as a lot of money from West Germany fell on their lap for reconstruction. This is of course more complicated than appearances. A good job was methodically done. I have already mentioned the nasty rumours that all the pretty intelligent women from the East went to West Germany’s cities while the dumb plain ones stayed in the villages. This is not exclusive to Germany. The future in any countryside is a bit subdued and uncertain — and the rate of youth suicides, say in Australia for example, attests to this complicated problem of isolation and limited prospects. But this is only a relative comment as on my last visit to a bakery in Griffith, New South Wales, There were at least three Miss Universes behind the counter.... Anyway, East Germans do not want refugees. This can create a problem for Dorothy (Angela Merkel). To say the least the refugees problem in Europe is a moral issue that has actually been imposed by the reckless wars fought by the US, in Libya (supported by Sarkozy-the-little-emperor for glorious ingratiating) and Syria. Europe bears the brunt of all these stupid American Empiredom decisions. On the other hand, Merkel knows that German factories need foreign labour to make cheaper products under the better German engineering — and so far, this has paid off with the trade balance being well in favour of Germany. Before the refugee problem, Germany imported much labour from Turkey. It’s possible that such import has already induced second and third generations of Turks born in Germany. In some areas of Germany, this is strongly noticeable in Turkish districts where German is hardly spoken. 

As well, Dorothea (Angela Merkel) is the glue that has been holding Europe together, holding the hand of Hollande like a mum pulls her kid along to school. But the Yanks have done everything possible to destroy Europe, from secret loans to Greece (we know what happened there), Portugal and Italy and Spain, adding some favours to Germany and none to France, though Sarkozy-Himself tried to win some points with Washington by making France rejoin NATO and a few other brown-nosing trapezium (the trapeze having been invented by the French clowns) acts. Ugly.

So Angela has a bit of hard work to do to convince that she is the key to the future success of Germany and Europe. 

On another front, Merkel has a love-hate relationship with Putin. The Ruskies were in East Germany during all her young years and she benefited of an excellent technical, though godless, education. See Merkel speaks Russian fluently and Putin speaks German fluently. Both cannot pull the wool over each other eyes. Putin was a spy operative in Dresden. By various ways, Merkel joined the CDU — the Christian Democratic Union (Christlich-Demokratische Union Deutschlands) but she still has a bit of a social conscience, unlike our Trumbled government.

All this history still carries a momentum towards a better future that both leader, Merkel and Putin, want, while the USA is now looking inwards through its own bleeding navel, while still wanting to kick arses willy-nilly in defiance of proper decorum. The Yanks having been outsmarted by Russia in Syria, China, and a host of other places, be prepared for nasty revenge. And this latent discreet threat is in the mind of all the people in Europe and Russia. Merkel knows how to play the big guys, though The Donald is like a spinning wind vane in a hurricane. The other candidates in this German Election are unknown at this level.

Meanwhile, Macron, the French wonder boy, is seeing his popularity plummet at V speed, due to his relationship with the big rich end of town and in his attempt to dismantle the workers union movements. Like in Germany, the union movement in France is powerful. If workers conditions around the Western world are what they are today, one can thank the French and German unions, and Karl Marx, otherwise you would be sweating like dead workers in a Bangladeshi factory. Sure, there is a bit of socialism attached to the concept, and the rich boys have done all they can to demonise the idea of unionism, using this “equalising” relationship as a scarecrow. There are many workers these days, in Australia, who have never been in a union. This is shown by the number of accidents on building sites and the end pay packets which for thousands of casuals have been hit through the penalty rate governmental reductions. Unions have improved workers conditions nonetheless and most have been honest with their members contribution dealing. Let’s not mention someone like Kathy Jackson who despite the “Royal Commission Circus on Union Rorts” frothed up by Abbott and polished ashamedly by crowing Turnbull, did not get one single penalty yet for having rorted the finances of her SHU union. But she appeared as a “Liberal” (CONservative) stooge (she was possibly a plant) to the likes of Abbott and Pyne who should have resigned from parliament for having supported this criminal alone. But this is an aside. 

In New Zealand, “Girl power” has revitalised that country Labour Party. This is why our Julie from the Nasty Party (Liberal CONservatives) has lambasted this fresher NZ Labour party in regard to having exposed the leader of the Nationals in Australia, Barnaby Joyce, as kiwi-ish. But our Bishop is talking bullshit of course, as the truth of the revelations can prove. But she wants to score points on Australian Labor by finding these redeems anywhere including in the land of the best Rugby Team in the world which gives the Aussies a regular thrashing. Apparently instead of getting bruises for cash like the Aussies, the Kiwis do it for glory and a Haka. Go figure. 

So, is trouble looming? Well according to the Sunday Turdocrap (3/9/17) scribes, Bill (Shorten) is an Aussie but not fair dinkum says La Madam Devine (what did you expect? She’s paid to poopoo Bill), while the vote yes for marriage equality is hypocritical says Piers Akerman (what would you expect? He is paid to poopoo anything that does not provide him with the electricity to power his shit-pump on his island paradiso), and Peta (the lying negative maiden of the Turd Abbott jock-strap support group), says Trumble won’t see Christmas in his PM slippers. But all is well, as Karl Stefanovic (who? I hear you say), the true Aussie with a real Aussie name, is being groomed by the said paper, to become PM, instead of serving breakfast press releases on tele. I find him with a personality equal to that of a cardboard box but then some people love cardboard boxes. Apparently, Karl can wear a hard hat and place a shovel on his shoulder like any PM can, even dig solid concrete. The piece is actually written by Karl himself. He has a not-too-bad-opinion of himself.

Let’s hope that this is a joke. The world is in a state of a joke going stale, unfortunately. Let’s hope that Putin and Merkel can bash something together that will give us something to hope for. Then The Donald can join them on tippitoes...

 

Gus Leonisky

Your local Karl Marx impersonator...

a river

 

elbe river

I

The river that cuts a roughly diagonal line from the North Sea to the Polish-Czech border has been more than just a waterway for at least 21 centuries.

As historian James Hawes traces in a recent book, Roman emperors dared not venture beyond the Elbe and in the middle ages it formed the eastern border of Charlemagne’s empire.

The Nazi party made its breakthrough in the conservatively minded lands of East Elbia and the iron curtain, which placed the river predominantly in the communist east, merely adding a military dimension to a century-old cultural divide between the largely Protestant, eastward-looking Germany of the Elbe, and the more Catholic, west-facing Germany of the Rhine.

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/02/germany-elbe-river-cultura...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/German_Trade_Union_Confederation

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_Democratic_Union_(East_Germany)

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-09-02/jacinda-ardern-is-the-woman-behind...

 

Pictures top and above by Gus Leonisky Top: Union poster, Berlin. Above: The Elbe river up from Dresden, near the Czech border.

 

meanwhile, a wohnblockknacker in frankfurt...

 

At least 60,000 people will be forced from their homes in central Frankfurt on Sunday, as Germany begins an operation to defuse a huge unexploded World War II bomb dubbed "blockbuster".

It will be the biggest evacuation of its kind in post-war Germany, Frankfurt’s security chief Markus Frank said.

The 1.8-tonne British bomb, which German media said was nicknamed "Wohnblockknacker" – or blockbuster – for its ability to wipe out whole streets and flatten buildings, was discovered on Tuesday during building works. Police have since been guarding the bomb site, which is close to the city centre and just some 2.5 kilometres (1.5 miles) north of the main Zeil shopping area.

read more:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/09/03/evacuation-60000-planned-fran...

view of the area where the bomb sits, from the Zeil district area...

frankfurt

Picture by Gus Leonisky

gaining mom-entum...

 

It is a week before the New Zealand election and the Labour leader, Jacinda Ardern, is raising her voice above the cacophony at the Tahunanui community centre in the coastal town of Nelson where a crowd has come to meet the 37-year-old woman hailed as the latest saviour of the left.

Just weeks ago her prominence on the general election campaign trail was unthinkable. Ardern, then deputy leader, had declared that every colleague would have to be hit by a bus before she would step up as the “designated survivor”.

Yet here she is, following the surprise resignation of her predecessor and Ardern’s swift promotion, promising to end child poverty to a roomful of mothers who, along with young people, are her greatest champions.

“I thought it was an awesome opportunity to come down and see a fabulous, vibrant young leader,” says Kerry Cooper, who spends her evenings phoning everyone she knows to talk them into voting for Ardern. “I thought it was an opportunity to see history in the making.”

read more:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/sep/15/jacinda-ardern-new-zealand...

 

Read from top...

 

Jacinda Ardern for PM...

The leader of the New Zealand First political party, Winston Peters, has announced that he will back Labour to form a coalition government, making Jacinda Ardern the country's third female prime minister.

It comes nearly a month after an inconclusive election result left both National and Labour courting his nationalist party to form a governing coalition.

"We had a choice to make … for a modified status quo or for change," Mr Peters told reporters in Wellington, ending nearly a month of political uncertainty.

"That's why in the end, we chose a coalition government of New Zealand First with the New Zealand Labour Party."

New Zealand First holds the balance of power with nine seats, a Labour-Green bloc controls 54 seats, and the National Party 56 seats.

read more:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-10-19/new-zealand-first-forms-coaltion-w...

 

blowing bubbles in new zealand...

Whistleblower Edward Snowden is feeling vindicated after a New Zealand Herald report citing official documents which appear to show that a mass surveillance program continued after then-Prime Minister John Key claimed it had been halted; Snowden has accused Key of engineering a cover-up which enabled him to "steal" the 2014 general election.

Official New Zealand government documents show that a mass surveillance program, which former Prime Minister John Key insisted had been halted, had in fact continued during his time in office, according to an investigation by the New Zealand Herald.

Whistleblower Edward Snowden has accused Key, who was in office from 2008 to 2016, of "stealing" the 2014 general election by falsely claiming that the program had been stopped.

A Lie, a Cover-Up, and a Stolen Election: @nzherald's new evidence shows former PM of New Zealand John Key lied to his country about mass surveillance plans in the final days before the vote — and won. #nzpol https://t.co/NIdGlJwprq

— Edward Snowden (@Snowden) 28 ноября 2017 г.

​Shortly before the election, investigative reporter Glenn Greenwald, who examined the files Snowden leaked from the NSA, and Snowden alleged that the New Zealandgovernment was carrying out mass surveillance of its residents.

Snowden warned New Zealanders that "If you live in New Zealand, you are being watched," and accued Key of "not telling the truth about mass surveillance."

Key issued a strong denial of the claims and even released several declassified papers to support his position. He claimed that the Speargun project to tap New Zealand's internet cable had been dropped in March 2013.

Read more:

https://sputniknews.com/asia/201711291059525071-snowden-new-zealand-spyi...

striking in germany...

 

Luisa Neubauer, the German face of the global movement spurred by Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, debates the student climate strikes with German Economics Minister Peter Altmaier.

...

Neubauer: We recently demonstrated in Berlin on a holiday, and more people came than on a school day. You might not believe it, but many young people want to go to school and the strike is an incredibly big sacrifice for them. But I'm sure that we wouldn't be having this conversation if we had quietly demonstrated on Saturdays, as has been done over the last 40 years. People are only listening to us now because we're crossing a line.

Altmaier: You say that you're striking for the climate, but holding general political strikes is not something that we do here in Germany. Our right to strike is always linked to demands that can be met by an employer. That may sound like a formal argument to you, and I have no intention of patronizing you. But at the end of the day the students are striking against themselves. If you want to change the world later as an adult, and we all hope that you do, then a good education is important.

Neubauer: That's a big misunderstanding: We're not taking to the streets because we want to change something later as adults, but rather because decision-makers like you need to take action now. We're pulling the emergency brake because we're thinking beyond the next exam. When the right to strike was introduced, we were not yet facing the climate crisis.

DER SPIEGEL: When Mr. Altmaier wanted to speak at your demonstration, he was booed. Why did you refuse to engage in a dialogue?

Neubauer: It was our grassroots democratic decision not to allow any politicians to speak to us. If they want to show their solidarity with us, they can meet our demands in their ministries. And we don't think it makes much sense to have Mr. Altmaier defend his coal policy on a stage in front of a crowd of young people.

 

Read more:

http://www.spiegel.de/international/germany/the-climate-activist-vs-the-...

 

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75 years ago...

See Elbe River above. a river

1945: Russians and Americans link at Elbe

Russian and American troops have joined hands at the River Elbe in Germany, bringing the end of the war a step closer.

Statements have been released simultaneously in London, Moscow and Washington this evening reaffirming the determination of the three Allied powers to complete the destruction of the Third Reich.

According to a statement issued by Downing Street, the commanders of a United States division and of a Russian Guards division met at Torgau, south of Berlin on 26 April at 1600 hours local time.

Here we met the Russians who had advanced from the East. This was the first meeting of the Allied Forces
People's War memories »

official pedo-ring in germany...

Helmut Kentler, a man responsible for vulnerable children being sent into the care of pedophiles for decades, wouldn’t have got away with it for so long had he not been admired by those in power, researchers and activists told RT.

Germany is still reeling from a massive child abuse scandal as it was revealed that a man long considered to be one of the “founders of modern sexology” in fact acted as a “matchmaker” for pedophiles by sending neglected children into their care under the passive eye of Berlin authorities.

 

Read more:

https://www.rt.com/news/492520-germany-pedophile-sexology-expert-progressive/

 

 

Just to confirm that this is not "Russian propaganda", see also:

 

https://www.dw.com/en/berlin-authorities-placed-children-with-pedophiles-for-30-years/a-53814208

 

Read from top.