GER politics thread

[ikalugin]

http://www.spiegel.de/spiegel/konsta...a-1137204.html

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by DicheBach

Yup! You nailed it.

Course it isn't a strictly modern problem. The French suffered similar issues as a result of the guerrilla war in occupied Spain, and even Alexander's armies were bothered by it in India and Afghanistan of all places.

We "Westerners," particularly those of us of a "secular humanist rationalist" bent find ourselves in a real philosophical pickle. A true Catch-22.

Most likely it is a problem that the kids being born right now will still be dealing with and quite possible for generations after that too.

Honestly I'm not that worred about either Vlad or Trumpolini. Trump talks too much, but he doesn't want war. Vlad has about as much as he can handle with his forces in Ukraine having been ground to a halt and the various occupied territories in his toy box always posing some risk.

China is in my opinion a powder keg--has been for decades, but with recent financial events, even more so. The regime there has to walk a delicate line between maintaining control and allowing enough civil liberties that they avert coups and civil wars.

As long as one is okay with periodic spree killers shouting Allahu Snackbar every now and again (along with the interminable drug cartel war in Mexico and the civil war in Syria) as well as the inevitable continued violence in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen, etc. I'd say we're looking at another 8 years of "peace."

Fully agree, the PRC is a definite concern, especially with 'Trumpolini's (I wonder if he'll get American trains to run on time? ) economic policies looking to hurt China where it counts for the most at the moment and that's their wallet. The growth rate got revised down from 7 to 6.5% the other day, and I wouldn't be surprised to see it go down further within the next five years, and that's big trouble for Beijing. If things really go south I couldn't rule out some kind of Maoist uprising from the interior and that would be some real bad news for the west if the Maoist hawks take over.
Ultimately it's hard to say which is the biggest threat for us, or if, indeed, we are our own biggest threat, which is a bit existential but like you say it's a philosophical dilemma, which admittedly we are fortunate enough to be in the position of being able to have, unlike those caught in the middle of the mess in the Middle East.
As for the snackbar campaign, I think it's unfortunately something that you can't really defend against without radically altering what it is to be a western nation. So, you have to factor in some kind of losses in the 'war on terror' because it's inevitable that some will get through and will get far enough to be able to carry out an attack. It is the cost of war, and when you figure in the death tolls on both sides, civilians included since 2001, even with 9/11 thrown into the mix we are still far far less bloodied than those we have engaged in warfare with, in Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Yemen, Pakistan, Somalia, and so many other places that I can't really think of them off the top of my head. I think the ratio, for America at least, is about 100 to 1, and that's military and civilian fatalities, and that's a conservative low estimate because we'll probably never know the true number of fatalities amongst civilians of these countries.

[ikalugin]

I wonder if he'll get American trains to run on time?

I wish Germans would get their trains to run on time.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by ikalugin

I wish Germans would get their trains to run on time.

Heh, you should try ours.

[ikalugin]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Heh, you should try ours.

In my experience British trains are superior in terms of running on time.

[Skybird]

German rail is better than its reputation but by far not as good as Deutsche Bahn itself claims.

I had many business dates in other cities to run in the past three mionths, and did over 20 travels via rail for that reason. I cannot complain about how it was going.

Also, if you know ehere to look, you can find very cheap possibilities.

However, the busines is not healthy. Its beign run highly deficitary, the bridges and track network are aching under their age, and the German conception of "high speed trains" that nevertheless halt in every little cow village is totally counter-productive.

Beware with those ticket automats, however, and counters - and the option to use computer for booking. I have seen price differences of up to 80% when comparing station automat, station counter, phone app and comouter at home (for the same train, same day, same time). Their system does not work, or is intentionally fishing for the unaware, which in my book would be fraud. Their selling policy really is a deep, deep mess. And it is that since as long as I can rememeber. 15 years minimum.

Never trust their staff at selling counters. These are your worst options, by far. You even have to oay them a fee for that disastrous "service", and you get back an overpriced connection and a ticket that may be costing 150% more, or they stay silent on saving options you could take. It is not clear to me whether staff does that intentionally or is misled iztself by the disastrous siftware.

So, German rail in practice means better travelling than often is said - but be on your maxed-out guard when buying tickets. Ticket buying is a mess.

During my military service I traveled by train all the time and there never where any serious issues.
"Oh no the train is ten minutes late - let's freak out everybody and enjoy that we Germans just got another reason to bitch around, although we will be able to catch our follow up trains just fine, aka no damage done. "

As Skybird said, they aren't as great as they try to pretend, but they usually get you where you want comfortable and in time.

If you wanna know how awesome train rides can be, hop one of the freighters in India. If you survive you can bitch some more about the Deutsche Bahn.
(not directed to anyone here, just saying...)

[ikalugin]

Originally Posted by Skybird

German rail is better than its reputation but by far not as good as Deutsche Bahn itself claims.

I had many business dates in other cities to run in the past three mionths, and did over 20 travels via rail for that reason. I cannot complain about how it was going.

Also, if you know ehere to look, you can find very cheap possibilities.

However, the nusines is not healthy. Its beign run highly deficitary, the bridges and track network is aching under their age, and the German conception of "high speed trains" that nevertheless halt in every little cow village is totally counter-productive.

Beware with those ticket automats, however, and counters - and the option to use computer for booking. I have seen price differences of up to 80% when comparing station automat, station counter, phone app and comouter at home (for the same train, same day, same time). Their system does not work, or is intentionally fishing for the unaware, which in my book would be fraud. Their selling policy really is a deep, deep mess. And it is that since as long as I can rememeber. 15 years minimum.

Never trust their staff at selling counters. These are your worst options, by far. You even have to oay them a fee for that disastrous "service", and you get back an overpriced connection and a ticket that may be costing 150% more, or they stay silent on saving options you could take. It is not clear to me whether staff does that intentionally or is misled iztself by the disastrous siftware.

So, German rail in practice means better travelling than often is said - but be on your maxed-out guard when buying tickets. Ticket buying is a mess.

My personal experience of using ICE service is that it is abysmally off time (ie hours). I may have been extra unlukcky though, as I do not have statistics.

[Skybird]

Most perfect train service is in Japan, from all what I heard and read, btw. My father once was one tour with the orchestra there, 4 weeks. He said they - the employees of the Japanese rail service - could as well all work as heart surgeons, that precise and clean the system worked. That was in the mid-80s, however.

[Skybird]

Originally Posted by ikalugin

My personal experience of using ICE service is that it is abysmally off time (ie hours). I may have been extra unlukcky though, as I do not have statistics.

Individual examples are individual examples. Statistics are about general populations and trends. The ICEs they called out when I waited for my own train, usually were right on time or had delays of less than 5-6 minutes. For such delays I simply do not care at all. Happens in metro-busses all the time. Personally I prefer commuter trains, they take longer, but are much cheaper.

[ikalugin]

Originally Posted by Skybird

Individual examples are individual examples. Statistics are about general populations and trends. The ICEs they called out when I waited for my own train, usually were right on time or had delays of less than 5-6 minutes. For such delays I simply do not care at all. Happens in metro-busses all the time. Personally I prefer commuter trains, they take longer, but are much cheaper.

5-6 minutes is unacceptable in my opinion. I primarily travel on the north-south axis, ie between Baden-Baden and Cologne.

Originally Posted by Skybird

Most perfect train service is in Japan, from all what I heard and read, btw. My father once was one tour with the orchestra there, 4 weeks. He said they - the employees of the Japanese rail service - could as well all work as heart surgeons, that precise and clean the system worked. That was in the mid-80s, however.

Been there a few years back, the trains were cheap and on time. Comfort wise ICE was the best I have seen so far (I tend to travel first class).

[ikalugin]

How is German public taking the wikileaks new stuff?

Originally Posted by ikalugin

How is German public taking the wikileaks new stuff?

What new stuff exactly?

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by Nippelspanner

What new stuff exactly?

Vault 7, which in keeping with the theme of current events sounds like it's from the Fallout universe.

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...-a7616031.html

Oh that!
If that's true, and why wouldn't it, this is crazy on a whole new level.

Theoretically, there would need to be severe consequences. Practically, we all know nothing will happen.

Aka, the United spies of America will just continue to do what they do best: not respecting anyone or anything, not giving a damn about anyone or anything - and continue the huge "we're the free-est and bravest of them all" tour of world domination.

*shrug*