Feeling Imperatorial

Today I found in my letterbox a large envelope sent by the municipal administration. It contained a red envelope, a blue envelope, and three pre-printed forms.
One is a Merkblatt, an instructions leaflet, that explains detailed what I have to do. The second is a long leporello listing forty political parties or groups of people, who want to become members of the European Parliament., while the third is the official Wahlschein, already provided with the official Dienstsiegel of the municipality. This is not “just a stamp”, but the imprint of the official Siegel / seal or sigil, what makes it an official document. It needs additionally my handwritten signature to become fully effective.
Isn’t it fascinating that we still today, in the middle of the digital age, need to sign papers with our own hands to make them legally working ?
In medieval times kings and emperors sometimes had graphic representations of their names at the end of important contracts, charters etc. and it was enough when the man made a scratch with the pen – mostly likely the quill – somewhere : Then he had it signed manu propria, with his own hand, regardless of the fact whether he could write or not.
I, of course, will put there my whole name, by my own hand, in all its grandeur, with a biro.

As already mentioned, the leporello (roughly 95 cm long, so a little short of one meter) lists forty groups of people, who want to become members of the EP (Ger., Eng.).
There are the usual suspects, as the conservatives, the social democrats, the greens, the (so called) liberals, all traditional German mainstream parties. A Bavarian speciality are the “Freie Wähler” and the “Bayernpartei” – that makes six.
At the far right we find old Nazis, new Nazis (twice), and the fascists who camouflage as bourgoise party – makes four. On the left we have old communists, a Marxist-Leninist party (true survivors !), socialists, and the leading left party – adds another four. Then we have a so-called “fun”-party run by a group of satirists, they already have a seat in the EP (!).
The other 25 parties or groups stand for more or less specific interests, like feminists, ecology & animal rights (at least another eight groups), the interests of older people (“Die Grauen”, the Greys, hopefully not from outer space), humanists, common happiness etc. Some seem to be a bit cloudy. I vaguely remember that somewhere in the East (Slovakia ?) a beer-party gained success.
Because it is time consuming (& a bit boring) to work through all the groups’ manifestos, programs etc. I used the “Wahl-O-Mat” of the trusted Bundeszentrale für politische Bildung to help me form my decision.
Now you may be witness to the historical moment, when mago “makes his cross”, sein Kreuzlein macht, and the official document signs – ah, well done : What a signature ! What a cross !
Now my voice is heard, even when it’s just a lousy “Piep”.
The leporello goes into the blue envelope (seal up – slurp ? ; ; ! bah, tastes like paste. Obviously because it is paste). Then the blue envelope goes together with the official Wahlschein (signed !) into the red envelope (not again, gargl …), and the red one goes into the mail, no stamp required.
The deed is done, the sovereign spoke.
On this day, 74 years ago, the Second World War ended. Seventy years ago the Parlamentarische Rat (Ger., Eng.) accepted the Grundgesetz für die Bundesrepublik Deutschland (Ger., Eng., pdf). There is no way back, not for the commies, not for the nazis.
No more war, that’s what the Union is all about, NATO too. All this is the result of the damn bloody twentieth century. One can only hope, and pray, that the dams hold against the waves of abysmal stupidity..

Should I …

… say something about the latest action of the fuehrer*, the firing of the foreign secretary, that is ?
I don’t think so. After all the question was not “if”, but only “when ?”
The form ? As shabby as possible, true to the fuehrer’s core. And do not disregard how proud the fuehrer is, he has to mention that it is his own decision.
The only thing I find interesting is the timetable. According to the fuehrer’s headquarter the now ex-secretary was informed / got a strong hint – or something – on last Friday.
A under-secretary of the administration for foreign affairs refuted this and said that the now ex-secretary learned about his kick-out today, like everybody else. Promptly the under-secretary was fired too.
So what was the last statement of the now ex-secretary ? He condemned the attempted murder of a Russian ex-spy on British soil and encouraged the British PM in her stance against Russia. Someone must have a list of the Russian ex-spies who had accidents of whatever nature over the last few years in Britain. GOd, it is simply what the Tcheka does to traitors, isn’t it ?
The fuehrer will say nothing about it, and will surely not join any program of sanctions or whatever. And if you want to stay on the fuehrer’s payment list (the state’s that is), you do not utter even the smallest critique against Russia. Or else.
(You can read about this “timeline” in the WPost, NYTimes, CNN, The Atlantic, Slate, Salon, with dates and all ; I do not have to repeat all this here.)
Do not forget that the seemingly most important thing for the fuehrer (besides his prick and dollars) is “loyalty”. I think it could also be called servile submissiveness – I’m not sure how to translate the German phrase hündische Unterwürfigkeit correctly : Whatever Vlad did for the fuehrer ten or fifteen years ago, it must have been – like great !
I can’t help : I think someone somewhere in a department for subversion read an old Asterix, volume 15, titled La Zizanie, Streit um Asterix or The Roman Agent, and then went to work.
If so, the result is impressive.

 * I will not call him “The American Leader” anymore. For me he is the fuehrer, with small “f”.

It’s Dark

Thank GOd it’s Frayday. Just returned from my morning drive, one more turn in the early afternoon, and yahoo ! that is it ; the engine will be started on the morning of the 15th again, not one second earlier.
I do not know what made this week so exhausting – the snow ? It was not that bad, the wind was a bit scary sometimes. But the job itself is all bearable. What is not bearable at times is the foolish gibberish of some colleagues. Sometimes I wonder where these people have their brains, especially when they talk about “die” / “them”, referring to asylum seekers & refugees.
I do not like the word “Flüchtlingskrise”, perhaps best translated as “refugee crisis” – humans are no crisis.
What we see is a crisis of the European idea ; the rise of nationalism throughout Europe with a special emphasis on Eastern Europe and the post-socialist societies (where they happily chop democracy) ; a strong current of xenophobia ; partly openly racist and even neo-fascist or nationalsocialist movements in Germany and elsewhere : Only some days ago a police chief in Saxony spoke about “Pogromstimmung” in some areas there.
Some of my colleagues, the “hard-working” “salt of the earth” – I hope you get the sarcasm – have seemingly no ability (or will) to differentiate. Asked who “they” / “die”, would be it’s Auslänner, Asylande, Neecher – all the same. The sentiment is partly sheer enviousness (” ‘they’ do get everything”, “even i-phones”), or blank racism (” ‘they’ are too dumb”, ” ‘they’ just want our women”, ” ‘they’ never have learned to work”, ” ‘they’ are of no value” etc.), combined with the preference for very simple “explanations” (“Merkel ist schuld !” / “It’s all Merkel’s fault !”) and “solutions” (“Grenze zu – alle in’s Lager !” / “Borders shut, all in camps !”).
All in all it is depressing dumbness. No wonder that “AfD” and “pegida” & Co. enjoy a large clientele – the far-right “AfD” reached 12 % at the last Sonntagsfrage (“If there were elections next Sunday, which party would you vote for ?”), nationwide.
I never thought that I’d say this publicly about a conservative German chancellor, but GOd bless Angela Merkel, may she stay strong and healthy.
I only hope that the brutish simplemindedness of these zombies will not prevail.

Sorry, No Title

Egon FRIEDELL, a long forgotten German Kulturhistoriker (1878-1938, born Friedmann, suicide in Vienna), once said sinngemäß – I can not cite it correctly, nor can I give the exact location – that rationalism would be an “Irrlicht”, a “ghost light”. The history of the Early Modern Æra (in Europe), the time of enlightenment / Aufklärung is for him only an intermezzo between two irrationalisms, the medieval and the one to come. And since 1989 we see again the rise of religiously motivated irrationalism that wants to eliminate anything and anyone who is not fitting in the pattern. The rotten bastards of the so-called “islamic state” do remind me a lot of the SS, just with beards. I read their letter, their “claim”, it’s dripping from arrogance & pathos, as sickening as their Mumbay-style attack on Paris.
As I see it there is no basis for negotiation or something else of this peace-keeping methods. NATO should declare the “Bündnisfall”, now the situation for what it was established is here – the attack on a partner of the alliance – and, together with Russia, kill them. I only wish those involved will be clear enough in their heads to avoid the American mistake of Iraq – and have a goddamn plan for the situation after the war !