Ops-Normal.org

It's cold, windy, and has been raining non-stop for over a week. Forecast is for continuing rain until next Wednesday afternoon. This was predictable when the local reservoir dropped to 39%. Sooner or later...

PS I've just been informed that it was warmer in Glasgow today than on the Costa Brava. Stick that in your sporran.

Friends who returned to Baden Wurtembourg last week for a surgical procedure today were advised today to delay it until mid-April as the hospital has so many off sick with Covid. The rate there is more than ten times the daily rate in Catalunia. The cause is the high rate of refusal to vaccinate, pure and simple.

OFSO,
Controversial claims require solid supporting data. Could you please supply same.

It is quite typical with the later variants that infections spread rapidly producing a sharp, high, but fairly short lived peak. This may be what you are seeing. Both vaccinated and unvaccinated are infected with a slightly higher prevalence for the unvaccinated but not to the extent of saying that the overall high rate of infection is due to the "refusal to vaccinate". The present high rate of infection is more likely due to the higher rate of spread of the BA2 variant which attacks both the vaxed and the un-. There was certainly value in vaccination during the Delta phase but the benefits have been reducing rapidly with the Omicron variants since the vaccines are not so effective against these and for many the effectiveness of the vaccine has reduced with time.

Our Dr. Campbell discussed this very matter recently you may still find that presentation on line.

.

The infection rates are on Google. The remarks re large numbers refusing vaccinaction come from the German government and our friends, who are vaccinated and furious with the anti-vaccination idiots.

80% vaccinated in Catalunia, masks obligatory when shopping, on transport etc., but most wearing them all the time.

Before the ravening wolf pack, headed by our good friend BM, leaps on my helpless body and rends me limb from limb for my last post i would add that I regard most news and almost everything said concerning Covid to be utter piffle and balderdash: however I reserve my democratic right to select from the detrius a viewpoint and to plant my flagpole into which ever turd floats by, and to stick to that as my belief.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.warned his compatriots of difficult times ahead due to the consequences of the war in Ukraine.
Steinmeier spoke in a keynote speech on Friday aimed at invoking a spirit of resistance.

Continued to say "the Good Times are over" for Germany

"Harder years, rough years are coming,’’ Steinmeier warned, adding that until Feb. 24 the country had benefited from a “tailwind” following the end of the bloc confrontation associated with the Cold War.
“The peace dividend has been used up.

“An era of headwind is beginning for Germany,’’ the president said.

I watched his speech. Not a patch on Hitler, A.

Germany’s state pension system is on the brink of collapse and the retirement age must be raised to account for growing life expectancy, according to the head of a powerful business group.

The country already has one of the oldest populations in Europe, with 22 per cent over 65, compared with 19 per cent in the UK. This will increase sharply in the next few years, meaning that markedly less money will flow into the social insurance system at the same time as more is being paid out.

Despite warnings from several prominent economists, however, successive German governments have dismissed appeals for cutbacks, if anything making the system more generous.

OFSO wrote: ↑

Mon Oct 31, 2022 9:15 am

Germany’s state pension system is on the brink of collapse and the retirement age must be raised to account for growing life expectancy, according to the head of a powerful business group.

The country already has one of the oldest populations in Europe, with 22 per cent over 65, compared with 19 per cent in the UK. This will increase sharply in the next few years, meaning that markedly less money will flow into the social insurance system at the same time as more is being paid out.

Despite warnings from several prominent economists, however, successive German governments have dismissed appeals for cutbacks, if anything making the system more generous.

This sounds horribly like the warnings by Catherine Austin Fitts who discussed the imminent collapse of the US Pensions and Social Care systems, forecast for about 2028 and hence the need to bump off all the "useless eaters", namely the old and retired like us.

And we've all sat and watched the Worldwide cull take place and nobody in these pages has even commented?

Except me on Tuesday 8th March this year, but I'm just a swivel-eyed loony conspiracy theorist, so nothing to see here, move along.

What happens when a conspiracy THEORY becomes a conspiracy FACT and how do those who vilified the original canary in the coalmine try to reverse ferret and squirm out from their earlier pronouncements?

Conspiracy theory isn't the point of my post. It's simply that if on average a German retired couple receive a state pension of over €2000 a month (plus long term care insurance, mandatory in Europe) the system will shortly run out of funds, and the German government is ignoring this....

(Post number 2004 in the series of antidotes to claims that the UK is worse than anywhere else, aka "crying stinking fish in own backyard" syndrome.)

I have people on my Facebook friends who complain that the German scheme is way better than the UK pension, but get upset when I point out that UK contributions to state pensions are way lower than German ones, and this clearly shows that the German scheme is too generous if it's running out. We were warned about it back in the 1980s when the government started encouraging everyone to go get a private pension.

I was looking at the US v UK, and apart from the fact that in the US some/all healthcare is an extra expense, what I stand to get for ten years of US contributions (assuming the Republicans don't gut the system so the federal government doesn't have to pay back what it borrowed from social security) is more than I'll get for 30 years of UK contributions.

An interesting feature of German Civil Service pensions is that they only continue to be paid if the pensioner remains resident in Germany. I have German friends living in Spain, former civil servants, who keep very quiet about where they are. (Cries of horror from EU supporters. "Surely not? Didn't the EU do away with this sort of thing?")

OFSO,

is that Renten, Pensionen, Gehalt außer Dienst/im Ruhestand, or all of the above?

Good question. I can't remember which of those is the civil service pension... Every time we discuss the German Pension Systems my mind goes blank after a minute or so...

Rente is the state pension. By default then, the Pension is the civil service pension.

Old German Joke:
Why is a German Civil Servant forbidden from looking out of his office window during the Morning?
Because if he did, he'd have nothing to do in the Afternoon.

One must wonder about the “intellect” of those who think this advert is a great wheeze to draw in some more money and the thought process of whomsoever signed off on it;

https://metro.co.uk/2022/11/10/kfc-apol ... -17738627/

And now the (Christian) church in Germany is advising it’s reverends to restrict their speed on the autobahn as they’re contributing to Project Fear Mk2 (Climate Crisis) if they cruise above a certain speed....

I wonder if I do exist or was I deleted some time ago during the Great Reset?

barkingmad wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 10, 2022 6:33 pm

And now the (Christian) church in Germany is advising it’s reverends to restrict their speed on the autobahn as they’re contributing to Project Fear Mk2 (Climate Crisis) if they cruise above a certain speed....

I restrict my speed when driving the van because the fuel economy is dire at higher speeds. In typical California conditions it'll do 16MPG (that's the puny US gallons) if I keep it below 75, but if there's a stiff headwind or I push it faster (bits of Utah and Nevada have 80MPH limits on I-80) then it drops significantly, so I tend to drive on cruise control where possible. I don't consider the climate when I'm driving, unless it's into the aforementioned headwinds, I'm more concerned about my wallet.

llondel wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 10, 2022 6:40 pm

I restrict my speed when driving the van because the fuel economy is dire at higher speeds. In typical California conditions it'll do 16MPG (that's the puny US gallons) if I keep it below 75, but if there's a stiff headwind or I push it faster (bits of Utah and Nevada have 80MPH limits on I-80) then it drops significantly, so I tend to drive on cruise control where possible. I don't consider the climate when I'm driving, unless it's into the aforementioned headwinds, I'm more concerned about my wallet.

I had assumed that with a bevy of huge Leonberger stars, and, perhaps, some Primadonna's, that you would have driven one of these...

I'm a bit lower on the scale than that. I'm a White Van Man, Ford Transit with a high roof (so I can stand up inside) and extended wheelbase (22ft long van). I can also reverse it down the side driveway, something that size I'd have trouble parking. Even with the Transit I'm careful where I park because the visibility is poor when reversing and it needs a reasonable amount of space for manoeuvring.

llondel wrote: ↑

Thu Nov 10, 2022 7:02 pm

I'm a bit lower on the scale than that. I'm a White Van Man, Ford Transit with a high roof (so I can stand up inside) and extended wheelbase (22ft long van). I can also reverse it down the side driveway, something that size I'd have trouble parking. Even with the Transit I'm careful where I park because the visibility is poor when reversing and it needs a reasonable amount of space for manoeuvring.

Sensible stuff indeed. How many miles do you rack up on the US highways a year with the dogs? (I make no apology for asking this on this thread as Leonbergers all have German passports)...