Comments by "" (@BasementEngineer) on "TLDR News EU" channel.

  1. I watched it until the talking head said: The single European currency was a French/German idea..." This is a most blatant and outright lie! Germany had absolutely no interest in doing away with the Deutschmark! This currency was well received world-wide, was stable, and made all the imports into Germany affordable. And made Germany's export affordable in foreign markets. So why would Germany wish to do away with the DM? Fact is it didn't. When the reunification of Germany became a hot item among European countries, the Brits opposed it outright. The French position was yes-but. So to get European and others support for the German reunification, Germany was forced to go along with the French idea of a uniform European currency. The results of this new currency were as predictable as night and day! The European majority of countries are a spend-thrift lot that couldn't/wouldn't balance a check book. The result of this sort of mismanagement is currency devaluation aka inflation. Because the northern European countries, which includes Germany, manage their economy and money reasonably well, thus forcing up the value of the European currency. What in fact happens is that these two conflicting measures force the currency value to be somewhere in the middle: It is too high for the spend-thrift countries, and too low for the fiscally prudent countries. And none of this is Germany's doing!!! The Germans have always been efficient end effective workers, whereas those living in sunnier and warmer climes prefer to take it easy and sit in sidewalk cafes and discuss whatever turns their crank. Of course the Germans also discuss their favorite subjects, but they do it after working hours in their favorite Gasthaus. Add graft and government ineptitude, if not outright theft, and you get the results you see. And all this has absolutely NOTHING to to with German government action. If anything you can blame the German business management and German workers for being too productive and effective, and showing up all others for being the slackers that they are. But that is another story...
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  2.  @bunny9286  I agree with most of what you said, apart from the 1960's stated objective of a unified currency. I was too young then to care. And yes indeed, the Germans work the least number of hours per year. Interestingly the Americans work among the highest number of hours per year, with no holidays taken by many workers. And then Germany lost 2 wars that were forced on it. And yet, the Germans prevailed and are doing very well thank you, in spite of all that, and work the fewest hours per year. How is this possible??? By working effectively and productively, and applying ingenuity to their work and life. Strangely enough, many visitors to Germany criticize how regimented the people appear to be, standing in perfectly straight lines at a bus stop, etc. etc. Well, it seems to me that if the mundane part of everyday living is carried out in accordance to agreed upon rules, that would leave the brain free to engage in more creative and productive activities. And it shows.
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  3. That would be Greece, right? Spare us from that spend-thrift crowd.
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  4. Nobody who thinks calls that dump "Great Britain" any more. As diplomatic courtesy we call it "Britain", and leave "little" as understood.
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  5. The South, as you say it, managed to do that all by themselves. People move to where the opportunities are. That's how North America got populated. Further, no one forces southerners to move to northern countries.
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  6.  @TomWaldgeist  Well engineered and constructed nuclear power plants are the safest and most benign method to produce those quantities of electric power required by an industrialized country. Nuclear waste is a smoke screen, and excuse to do nothing.
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  7.  @qap7  Storage is not a technical issue; it is a political issue.
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  8.  @guacamolipepperoni3119  Its a fact. I worked in the nuclear power business as an engineer early in my career, and read about the pros and cons.
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  9. That's what happens to conquered countries. They cannot formulate their own policies. Throw in easily manipulated democracy, and you get the result you see.
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  10. This is one of the problems with democracy.
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  11. Germany did the right thing in trying to normalize relations with Russia. Unfortunately the USA was left out of that profitable interaction and set out to disrupt it. All the actions in Ukraine are part and parcel of this disruption by the USA.
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  12. I agree with you. In which case Poland can compensate the families of all the German expatriates who were murdered and whose property was stolen. Then Poland can return all the territory stolen from Germany after WW I & II. After all that, you can raise the topic, along with proof, for German compensations.
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  13. Germany is a very small country with 83 million people. Yet half of Germany is covered by forest. What portion of your country is covered by forests? You do know that CO2 is food for plants that in return produce oxygen, right?
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  14.  @harounsamadi2527  Hmmm, I wonder why, after all that time, you know little about Germans.
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  15. Those decisions you complain about are made in the USA and Britain, who are the world's greatest war mongers that ever polluted god's green earth. These two bandits impose their wants on NATO and bingo, everyone is forced to go along if you want to be a member of that club.
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  16. Propaganda, especially from English speaking countries, is as far from the truth as is imaginable.
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  17.  @billcipherproductions1789  Sure, they wanted to screw their people even more.
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  18.  @hubiraithegreat  You have definitely swallowed too much USA and Hollywood propaganda.
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  19.  @hubiraithegreat  It isn't a single movie. Practically every Hollywood movie produced has at least a snippet referrring to the holocaust, Nazis, and the holy 6 million. This nonsense even appears in serious tomes on serious subjects. I am surprised that it hasn't appeared in STEM textbooks, yet.
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  20. Methinks you are very close to the truth. The USA, probably at the behest of Israel, has been nit-picking at German products and services for a number of years now.
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  21. That is a head scratcher indeed. Why cannot Germany build its own planes and engines?
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  22.  @boulabiar  The sad part is that that war was starred by the USA, using Ukraine as proxy and cannon fodder.
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  23.  @duwang8499  Thanks for the explanation! I do hope that Germany manages to build truly outstanding U-boats! Best wishes.
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  24. Hmmm, why don't you talk to the USA, Canada, Australia, new Zealand, and yes, the enemy du jour USSR and now Russia. Britain defeat Germany? You are delusional. Seek help.
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  25. That's what happens when you are a peaceful country minding your own business.
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  26. Spoken like an ignoramus.
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  27. To the first approximation, the amount of energy a country uses is a measure of its quality of life and standard of living. You are welcome to cut back as much as you wish, or do without. Myself, I am using as much as I please and am willing to pay for. I really don't understand why the Greens hate greenery (forests, etc.) so much.
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  28. That would be a good thing.
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  29. Germany caused WW II? Why don;t you inform yourself on who declared war on whom, and whose expatriates were murdered by the tens of thousands in the stolen lands.
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  30.  @cbs577  Here is a thumbnail sketch: - In 1933 Judea declared war on Germany. - Between the two wars German expatriates that lived in the territory stolen from Germany post WW I, were murdered by the Poles by the tens of thousands. - Germany appealed to Britain to get help in trying to stop this. Britain did not even answer that diplomatic communique. - Why would Germany want to talk to Britain about this problem? Because Britain had given Poland the guarantee that in the case of any war between Poland and Germany, Britain would help Poland. - With this British guarantee the Poles really became obnoxious and chauvinistic: They threatened to invade Germany and move the Polish border to Berlin. There were also a number of violent border excursions by the Poles, some with weapons and deadly violence. - Adding all that up, the German government decided to march into Poland to stop all these murders and aggressions. - 1939 and Germany marched into Poland. Within 1 month Poland was subdued, and that was that, except: - !939 and France declared war on Germany, and marched into Germany. - 1939 and Britain declared war on Germany and dragged the USA into this mess. Note that the USA was officially neutral while shipping war material to Britain. - 1941, and the USSR is poised to invade Germany and western Europe. - Germany anticipated this invasion, and struck preemptively 1 month prior to the Soviet invasion. - The USA, always ready to make a buck, aided the USSR by shipping millions of tons of war material to the USSR. - By 1945 Germany was exhausted, what with the incessant bombing of civilians and anything that moved. That included supply convoys to concentration camps. - You decide what to make of this.
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  31.  @cbs577  I you were not so fucking lazy you could easily check on line what i wrote. Or ask me which books I got the info from. But you sound like someone from the shallow end of the gene pool "whose mind is made up, don't confuse me with facts".
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  32. Well, your opinion is wrong.
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  33.  @TomWaldgeist  Rubbish. Wind and solar are not sufficiently reliable and require fossil fuel back-up. This inceases the overall cost of electric power.
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  34.  @guacamolipepperoni3119  The people who don't want nuclear power also don't want wind mills or solar arrays in their neighbourhood.
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  35. The slavs do that all by themselves.
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  36. Each member country sends elected representatives to Brussels, the seat of the European parliament. If you have a problem with that representation, elect better representatives.
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  37. Much of what you wrote is true, but... There is always a but, right? Ukraine, aided and abetted by USA and British war mongers, bombarded the Donbas region in 2014, murdering numerous Russian-sympathetic people. The Russians of course were upset with this and asked the Ukrainian government to stop this. With USA encouragement the Ukrainians carried on, until the Russians, under Mr Putin, said "enough". Come and think of it, this sounds like 1939 all over again, only with different players.
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  38. Germany trying to normalize relations with Russia caused inflation in the UK. Are you able to elaborate on this?
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  39.  @MrJudgementday99  Commodities are set in the commodities market, and that covers their wholesale price world wide. Germany has nothing to do with this since the largest commodity markets are in the USA. In Chicago, for instance. I live in Canada where we have oil coming out of our ears. One would think that our gasoline would be cheaper than in less endowed countries; wish it were so. Note that in western countries the price of gasoline includes huge amounts of taxes, now also carbon taxes. To add insult to injury, any new tax is added to the retail price, thus stacking taxes upon taxes upon excise taxes upon carbon tax. Having said all that, you Brits are ingrained with the lie that everything is Germany's fault. If you stupid chits had not sided with the USSR in WW II, we wouldn't be having this talk.
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  40. Don't bet the farm on this.
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  41. Gee whiz, and here I was led to believe that Russia was one of the glorious allies that defeated evil Germany. You mean I was lied to, and it was Russia that is/was the evil pariah? Say it isn't so!
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  42. Well, you are welcome to your third and fourth rate, but excellent war mongering, politicians.
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  43. Because that war was the Ukaine's doing, with the USA and Britain aiding and abetting.
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  44. Bullshit. The Americans were jealous of Germany because it got relatively inexpensive gas from Russia, from which no one in the USA could profit. Why should Germany not try to normalize relations with Russia? Especially at a time when the USA is the enemy of everybody.
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  45.  @honeshreddy8667  If Russia was always a threat to Europe, why did Britain and the USA side with Russia in WW II and declare war on Germany? Especially since Germany was never a military threat to Britain or the USA.
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  46.  @honeshreddy8667  Well, you are wrong. Germany tried to normalize relations with Russia which, in my opinion, is a good thing. That "they (rest of Europe) is faring better than Germany is your unsubstantiated opinion. The only threat Germany ever was to other countries was purely economic. You know, making things better, cheaper, and faster, along with original designs, etc. Britain gave up on this and fostered WW I.
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  47.  @honeshreddy8667  Simple minds=simple explanations. So be it.
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  48. Why don't you hold your breath for that to happen?
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  49. Then go forth and do better!
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  50.  @Polygarden  You certainly raise points to ponder. However, the perceived problem with spent nuclear fuel is not as intractable as it is described by the media. The mass of radioactive isotopes decrease through decay, such that after 10 years most of the radioactive isotopes have decayed to low levels. This is certainly the case with CANDU spent fuel, which is stored above ground after 10 or so years. Mind you, this fuel is still placed into radiation shielding casks, but is much easier to handle. Fact is, spent nuclear fuel may be a trumped-up political problem, but is definitely not a technical nor engineering problem. The idea that perception is reality in a democracy, is one of the major problems with democracies.
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