The Polls

Offbeat said:
If you are not a citizen or permanent residency, you have to provide means to unlock your phone. This has been long standing policy in the USA. The rights are the border are very restrictive. It is different when you are inside the country. But at the entry points, it is different story and it has been legal.
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Yes, I know, but it feels so different to europe (even before Schengen treaty this was unthinkable at the border, probably forbidden due to personal rights, only possible when some judge allows it). From european view it is frightening. The view on freedom is very different in US and EU. Freedom of speech indeed is more restricted in EU, but the freedom of privacy is more protected in EU.

Offbeat said:
I have traveled to Israel with two phones. But I had a pre-clearance for arrival and departure because it was a business visit on behalf of company. Out of two or three visits in the last ten years, I was interviewed only once on departure for 10 minutes. They wanted to know which areas on Israel I had visited during my stay and what did I purchase.

Whose phones do they confiscate?
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Your personal phone and laptop often get confiscated, and sent to you some days later after screening it. This is not a rumour, it is written on the official website of German Foreign Office about travelling in Israel, google translated:

"When leaving Israel via Ben Gurion Airport, travelers undergo time-consuming security checks of luggage and are subject to interrogations. It is recommended to arrive at the airport early. If electronic devices, especially laptops, are confiscated by Israeli security authorities for inspection, they are usually sent to the traveler's location after one to three days."

www.auswaertiges-amt.de

Israel: Reise- und Sicherheitshinweise (Palästinensische Gebiete - Gazastreifen) (Teilreisewarnung)

Letzte Änderungen: Aktuelles - SicherheitslageSicherheit – Teilreisewarnung IsraelRedaktionelle Änderungen
www.auswaertiges-amt.de www.auswaertiges-amt.de

This does not seem to happen when you come in group with a travel company (their itinerary is known), but to single backpackers where they don't know where they have been and what they have done. I know Israel is threatened and has a right to be suspicious, but personally I would not like this procedure. There are so many other interesting countries I yet haven't been to.
 
bailar y tocar said:
MamboJazz said:
The defense industry is not at all interested in selling unexpensive things, and the politicians have also interest in feeding companies in their home area with multi-billion contracts. Bureaucracy, corruption and useless products are business as usual in the defense industry, and especially combined with modern IT they are always doomed.
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If Germans and others wanted to learn a thing or two on how to defend yourself from Russia....
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There I highlighted the key word. If anyone really wanted to have an effective defense....
 
Offbeat said:
This all demonstrates how little Biden and Democrats did to Trump-proof various aspects of the govt.
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No. The law allows a president to issue TPS = temporary protected status. The next president can revoke it.
There is no pathway in the US immigration system to do any other thing. You have a green card, right?
Well then you have had a taste on how messed up this system is. And Franz Kafka had no idea when he wrote his novel "Das Schloss" (the castle), but kafkaesk is an apt description even when a President's administration is favorable or neutral towards immigration.
 
Offbeat said:
If you are not a citizen or permanent residency, you have to provide means to unlock your phone. This has been long standing policy in the USA. The rights are the border are very restrictive. It is different when you are inside the country. But at the entry points, it is different story and it has been legal.

Yes once the immigration and customs decide to go through your phone, there are no limits. May be better to buy a second phone and only have kosher contents on it if visiting USA, Russia, or China! Both USA and Chinese officials have power to go through your phone contents at slightest suspicion. I won’t be surprised if Russians will do it too.




I don’t know when they started that. I have traveled to Israel with two phones. But I had a pre-clearance for arrival and departure because it was a business visit on behalf of company. Out of two or three visits in the last ten years, I was interviewed only once on departure for 10 minutes. They wanted to know which areas on Israel I had visited during my stay and what did I purchase.

Whose phones do they confiscate?
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The best approach is to request a wheelchair for travel. Seriously. I am not joking. Wheelchair passengers move right through. No secondary screening ever.

Speaking of secondary screening. I travelled back from Colombia on January 23 and even though my ticket included a carry on and a checked bag, I foolishly thought I could be more efficient by putting the carry on inside the checked bag - bad bad bad idea. I was selected for secondary screening for the first time ever in my entire life of flying on a passenger plane. It took about an hour to wait in line and then the CPB officer searched everything and even checked all of the medication and the shampoo (!!!) I was carrying for my wife. She travelled a few days later and uses a wheelchair. She went right through so fast while I was stuck in a traffic jam at the airport to pick her up. She was pissed that she had to wait for me instead of being happy that she did not have to wait in Customs and Immigration.
 
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Witkoff is undermining Rubio, and is emerging as an alternative power center in the American diplomacy. Rubio was a hawk on Ukraine-Russia policy and did an U-turn once he joined the administration.

www.bbc.com

Trump envoy Steve Witkoff dismisses Starmer plan for Ukraine

Steve Witkoff says the UK plans for an international force to support a ceasefire are a "posture".
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com

Steve Witkoff said the idea was based on a "simplistic" notion of the UK prime minister and other European leaders thinking "we have all got to be like Winston Churchill".

In an interview with pro-Trump journalist Tucker Carlson, Witkoff praised Vladimir Putin, saying he "liked" the Russian president.

"I don't regard Putin as a bad guy," he said. "He's super smart."
 
Offbeat said:
www.bbc.com

Trump envoy Steve Witkoff dismisses Starmer plan for Ukraine

Steve Witkoff says the UK plans for an international force to support a ceasefire are a "posture".
www.bbc.com www.bbc.com
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I like how the BBC article writes the sentence:

"There is this sort of notion that we have all got to be like [British wartime prime minister] Winston Churchill."

So they explain who Churchill was, in case the reader doesn't know. Interestingly BBC assumes some of their readers are idiots. I'd say if the reader doesn't know this he/she shouldn't read the article anyway.

Again the deep ditch: EU leaders say Putin is Hitler, but the Trump envoy says different. EU leaders say Russia will invade us in the year 2030 (precisely!), but if we invest insanely in our defense we may withstand.

German journalists give all they can for preparing us for the russian invasion: yesterday there was an interview saying there will be 700.000 allied troops fighting in Germany (think year 2030), about 1000 injured are to be expected each day, so hospitals should be prepared for this. The comments show many readers think the media has gone mad. The older eastern germans point out that under communist regime they were told each day that the NATO fascists may invade each day and they need to be prepared. They are now again not willing to believe what the media tells them, instead they voted 55% for opposition parties.

In Germany we have official media financed by taxes each one is obliged to pay (!), these media are expected to report in a neutral way. But now imagine that the majority in eastern Germany thinks the media is constantly lying, in western Germany about a third is believing this. Our new chancellor represents a 28% party, when he speaks for Germany he's walking on thin ice, and quite a few expect him to break into this ice some day.
 
Smejmoon said:
Why would you expect someone born after year 2000 to know?
I mix him up with Abraham Lincoln from different continent and era, because cigars is one of the most important things I know of both of them.
Also https://www.celebstoner.com/news/celebstoner-news/2021/02/12/abraham-lincoln-hemp-marijuana/
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I thought you were going to write bowler/top hats were the most important things you knew of both of them. I thought Abraham Lincoln smoked a pipe not cigars, where did you find info on cigars?
 
bailar y tocar said:
I thought you were going to write bowler/top hats were the most important things you knew of both of them. I thought Abraham Lincoln smoked a pipe not cigars, where did you find info on cigars?
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I'm ok with bowler hat thing. Realistically in 21st century we're going away from "great men history", I don't even know if schools teach kids this way now.
 
MamboJazz said:
Our new chancellor represents a 28% party, when he speaks for Germany he's walking on thin ice, and quite a few expect him to break into this ice some day.
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Due to the electoral system in Germany, only 86.1% of voters are represented in the Bundestag.
The CDU/CSU got 28.5%, their coalition partner SPD got 16.4%. That adds up to 44.9% of the vote.
44.9% divided by 86.1% equals 52.0% which is an absolute majority. In the first and most important parliamentary vote of this session, they changed the constitution with the help of the Green party (11.6% in the recent election) in order to suspend the debt limit for certain defense and climate change spending.

So, if we were to add in the 11.6% with the 44.9%, then the parties that claim to be engaging in responsible politics have 56.5% of 86.1% which equals a 66% supermajority.

I do not understand how you come up with 55% opposition to the govt.
Furthermore: eastern Germany has only 16.5 million residents, western Germany has 65.7 million residents which equals 4x. IMO, I don't believe Berlin City and large sections of Leipzig and Dresden are truly "eastern". I am not sure about Jena either. So that 16.5 million drops by quite a bit.

Finally. Germany has some extremely wealthy areas. People choose not to display their wealth the way Americans and others choose to do. My wife and I stayed with a friend who is a retired schoolteacher (not wealthy) and lives in the Hessische Bergstrasse region. We went to one of the top tier gourmet supermarkets located in Bensheim, Hessen. The items they had for sale there are not even available in even the wealthiest areas of NYC, SF, London or you name it. The prices seemed reasonable to me (everything, everywhere is cheap compared to the US) but the quality is in another world. Most of the customers were very wealthy but you would not know it from how they dress, what car they drive etc.

Meaning: There is an overwhelming majority of Germans who favor their current way of life. That should not be confounded with the fact that Germans always have to complain about something. Complaining is the national pastime.
 
bailar y tocar said:
I do not understand how you come up with 55% opposition to the govt.
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In eastern Germany 55% voted AFD / BSW / Linke, which are all in strong oppostion to both old and new government:
de.statista.com

Bundestagswahl 2025 - Wahlergebnis in Ostdeutschland | Statista

Die Union aus CDU und CSU wurde bei der Bundestagswahl 2025 stärkste politische Kraft, jedoch nicht in Ostdeutschland.
de.statista.com de.statista.com

Correct, eastern Germany has only 20% of the german population, so they will never decide and will stay unsatisfied. Before joining a bigger union you should be aware of this.
 
President Donald Trump did not dismiss the idea of pursuing a third term in the White House, despite the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution prohibiting it, claiming that “there are methods” to achieving this and emphasizing that he was “not joking” in a phone interview with NBC News’ Kristen Welker. CNN’s Betsy Klein reports on Trump's latest comments, and ex-Nixon White House counsel John Dean joins CNN’s Jessica Dean to discuss

 
Offbeat said:
The question is whether he turns against Putin. Like I said weeks ago, Putin might overplay his hand.
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to end the war, Trump has agreed to most of the demands Putin asked for when he negotiated with Biden before the war started, as NATO's Chief negotiator, Biden let pass an opportunity to stop this complex war that could lead to WW3 from starting....Trump is growing impatient with Putin, nonetheless, he understands that it is a complex war and there may be loose ends in the negotiations....for example: the US and Russia agreed to a 30-day energy ceasefire, even so, Ukraine attacked an important gas station in Kursk, Russia....Russia retaliated with a mass drone attack breaking the partial 30-day ceasefire, examples like this one are countless in this complex war....Trump said "ending this complex war is not going to be easy" he is trying to prevent WW3, something Biden overlooked in his negotiation with Putin as NATO's Chief negotiator
 
salsim said:
President Donald Trump did not dismiss the idea of pursuing a third term in the White House, despite the 22nd Amendment of the Constitution prohibiting it, claiming that “there are methods” to achieving this and emphasizing that he was “not joking” in a phone interview with NBC News’ Kristen Welker. CNN’s Betsy Klein reports on Trump's latest comments, and ex-Nixon White House counsel John Dean joins CNN’s Jessica Dean to discuss

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Almost like I called this and people saus I was paranoid....
 
salsim said:
to end the war, Trump has agreed to most of the demands Putin asked for when he negotiated with Biden before the war started, as NATO's Chief negotiator, Biden let pass an opportunity to stop this complex war that could lead to WW3 from starting....Trump is growing impatient with Putin, nonetheless, he understands that it is a complex war and there may be loose ends in the negotiations....for example: the US and Russia agreed to a 30-day energy ceasefire, even so, Ukraine attacked an important gas station in Kursk, Russia....Russia retaliated with a mass drone attack breaking the partial 30-day ceasefire, examples like this one are countless in this complex war....Trump said "ending this complex war is not going to be easy" he is trying to prevent WW3, something Biden overlooked in his negotiation with Putin as NATO's Chief negotiator
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When did Biden sit down with Putin and "negotiate"? I don't remember that one.

Russia "claims" that Ukraine violated the ceasefire. They lie incessantly. And how did they retaliate, against civilians like they typically do?

WWIII is going to start if we don't stop Russia in their tracks. Appeasement doesn't work with them.
 
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