Post photo: Darth Vader | © toxi85 on Pixabay
Table of Contents
Ukraine
Even if Ukraine even contrary to initial military assessments, can defend against the Russian Federation better than expected, it will have no chance of surviving on its own in the long term; just like any other European country. There is no question that the Russian Federation alone is to blame for the war, even though we have to admit that France and Germany made this war really palatable to the Russians. Neither country wanted to shoulder the integration costs for Ukraine in 2008 and 2014, just as they still refuse to integrate Georgia, countries in the Western Balkans or other Mediterranean countries.
Completely incompetent politicians only think until the next election and cannot imagine what damage they are actually causing by constantly sitting out! And most of the fellow citizens don't care at all, because they only think until their next vacation. And so in the case of Ukraine alone, according to an initial estimate, we have to reckon with EUR 1 trillion in war costs and EUR 1 trillion in reconstruction costs. A bill that you actually Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy would have to dish up. It should already be clear to everyone who will have to foot the bill in the end - but please don't get excited, because that is only a small part of the follow-up costs that you have to bear if you choose the biggest talkers in government offices purely for the sake of convenience.
Ukraine has been defending itself with the help of the West, if we are honest, with the help of the USA, which at least so far — as always — has borne most of the costs for a good year now and has probably already lost 100 soldiers in the process , more than Germany is able to recruit itself. But we Europeans, too, are slowly but surely realizing that this world war will damage us very badly, at least financially. No matter how the war ends, we have to reckon with a few million Ukrainians in Germany alone who we have to integrate.
But all this is a completely negligible cost if the Russian Federation again emerges victorious from this war! Only then will a massive migration movement of all Eastern Europeans be set in motion, all of whom will try to get at least to the west of the former Iron Curtain with their families. And this before the Russian Federation launches another attack on Europe.
Contrary to the most recent, also US American (!), publications, the Russian Federation will emerge victorious from this war even if it is allowed to keep the territories conquered until 2014! If this time the Franco-German axis forces Ukraine to enter into a truce, at the latest when a US Republican takes office, then not only will a good 100 mostly young Europeans have died completely in vain, but Europe as a whole will no longer be able to be saved be! And even our French friends' calculations of being able to maintain a French Europe west of the Rhine in the long term would also only be possible with American support - whether the Americans would then still want this is an open question.
I recommend further reading a very interesting article by Ryan Menon in Foreign Affairs of April 12, 2023, which advertises a successful Ukrainian counterattack this year, but with the aim of achieving exactly the kind of truce I feared. Although this would give the USA more room for maneuver in Asia, it will inevitably lead to the abandonment of Europe and with it the end of the free world - and with that we would all have lost the Third World War.
On the other hand, our upcoming summer holidays would be secured — as a European, you simply have to set priorities!
Lists
Yesterday I was able to "work" with other free voters on our list for the upcoming municipal elections on June 9, 2024. A first sighting of the candidates already known to us was very pleasing and so we are very confident that we will be able to present our members with a list that is as attractive as possible by the end of the summer, which should then be discussed and decided by them by the end of the year at the latest.
My good mood lasted until today's journal, when once again a fat professional politician with no higher education, let alone professional qualifications, only gave out hot air. What is going to happen to our country if you listen to politicians who are too stupid for a tree nursery themselves. It wasn't until my better half pointed out to me that she couldn't help but think of Star Wars and I immediately thought about it too Jabba Desilijic Tiure answered, the evening was saved again.
And so I'm very happy that we free voters can rely on fellow citizens who all have both feet on the ground and don't need any parties so that they don't have to sleep under bridges. The association “fat and stupid in one person”, which also fits well, has already been used by another, much better-known citizen for another professional politician.
And since Star Wars kept coming to my attention even when I was looking for a featured photo, I ended the evening by treating myself to an episode of The Mandalorian; The first three Star Wars films from the 1970s and 1980s have now become a whole universe, although here too there is no longer a distinction between good and evil.
That's why it wouldn't be so bad if we, as a country in which education is valued so highly and everyone is so proud of world-class education, made sure that our own representatives — whether in the local council or in the European Parliament — would at least have the chance to be able to do politics if they had qualified professional and educational qualifications.
smuggle
You should have known, first we let our infrastructure rot completely for decades, and then experts claim that modern expansion no longer makes economic sense. As a result, only the most necessary repairs and sometimes even a few renovations are carried out, which alone and alone ensure further decay for decades to come.
Since this takes the Neckar out of the running as an economically usable waterway, as the port of Heilbronn already did, the tax money planned for the next few decades could be better used for renaturing the Neckar. This also fits in very well with the new economic policy in Baden-Württemberg, which wants to focus more and more on high technology that is as virtual as possible — no matter what you mean by that — and thus at least bans heavy industry from the state. Baden-Württemberg, the land of vineyards, happy cows and artificial intelligence!
As we recently learned, research into artificial intelligence and its development will remain in Tübingen — if not in the USA, Japan or China as before — and Heilbronn will then be able to use its new technology park to take care of possible applications technologies to be invented in Tübingen.
Until then, however, we will have another attractive residential area and the younger ones among us will see how this residential area will develop. I'm betting on something with wine business, pubology and tourism.
