He should just retire. Probably the worst Labour leader of my lifetime, he managed to somehow endorse Brexit and lose against Theresa May.

US Government sources in general should not be trusted in my opinion. The scientific basis and independence of all agencies of that government have been seriously eroded and should therefore never be taken at face value without verification from trustworthy sources.

Any true American food is either microwaved or eaten directly out of a plastic bag!

In other news: your meal looks really good, like a true comfort meal

True, but the Greens, Habeck’s party, was not exactly at peak popularity any more at that time. During the previous election cycle it looked like the Greens might eclipse the Social Democrats and the Conservatives. With a stronger overall candidate like Habeck that lead may have resulted in an election victory, but that’s pure speculation on my end tbh.

Habeck is a missed opportunity, indeed. It wasn’t wise of the Greens to naminate Baerbock at the time. She was the weaker of the two candidates. Against the weak opponents (Scholz and Laschet) Habeck might just have had a chance.

Maybe it’s because I’m a foreigner living in Germany, but from what I gather few people really want to see her back in power. If anything, it’s more of a longing for a bygone era where stability and the international set of rules many had grown up with still applied.

Personally I believe her reign was one of the worst things to happen to Germany in my lifetime. For 16 years nothing really changed, unless her hand was forced. One of the very few unambiguously positive and lasting changes during her reign was marriage equality - which she personally voted against in parliament.

Even with my own language, Dutch, spoken by millions of people, I feel as if we’re gradually losing ground and nuance in favour of bad English among the younger generations.

Good for him. I suspect he speaks more English.

Immigrant refuses to learn the language of the country he moved to and goes on to feel unwelcome. What a shame. As an immigrant living in Germany myself I’d recommend he go somewhere else.

I think the compulsory digital id is not the way to go. Having a compulsory I’d system is fine and something I’ve never had an issue with, but it’s often more convenient to have a hard copy id card in your wallet. For one, the battery will never die on that one.

One thing I know for certain is that I want both parties to lose in a US-FIFA conflict.

Sometimes research and studies lead to completely expected results and seem like someone playing captain obvious. Nonetheless it’s important to have a solid basis to support one’s own argument, that democracy, freedom and European self determination are being attacked, than to simply assert it.

Do it like Turkey did a decade ago. That will reduce the number of Russian incursions significantly.

Is Slovakia beyond saving at this point or does it seem possible to still turn things around peacefully, ideally at the ballot box?

Where I live, here in Germany, it’s unusual for children younger than one to go to any kind of day care. Starting at around age one I’d estimate that around one third of children go to day care. By age three virtually all children go to Kindergarten. In my home country, the Netherlands, it’s much more common for children younger than one to go to day care.

What I find baffling though is that this German system is that it’s fully geared towards mothers staying at home for very long periods of time. Not only does this not make sense on a macroeconomic level, but it also deprives people of social interactions that don’t stem from being a parent, at least in my opinion.

Well, at least our day care is dirt cheap here, coming in at 280 € per month per child for five days a week between 7 am and 4 pm.

I share your opinion. Unfortunately the weird method that takes weeks and moves at a snail’s pace isn’t optional here at our day care. Speaking from experience with our first child: it would have been absolutely fine to leave her there for the entire day much, much earlier, since she really enjoyed going from the first day.

The only thing that never ran out was Vodka and Korn. Folks had to wait in line for anything and everything. What a great time it was.

It’s taken only about 35 years for the “free” countries of Europe to adopt the same mindset that the Eastern Bloc used to have. In large parts of Germany, for example, people can still remember how it was when you could expect your government to listen in on any and every private conversation. It wasn’t good.

I’ve read about this initiative a few times and only time will tell if it really works or if it will be another Lumix disaster. However, if you don’t try you’re always going to fail, so I applaud their courage. I hope more administrative functions can make this switch in the upcoming years. It’s certainly a better prospect to pay a few more admins and support staff to keep open source software running well than paying Microsoft millions just for a few licenses.

At this rate Germany might win this contest for once! /s