German Town Goes On Beer Buying Spree To Annoy Neo-Nazis

Residents of Ostritz, Germany are seen here buying up all the beer
at the town's supermarket so an influx of Nazis at a right-wing
festival wouldn't be able to buy any. 

The area around Ostritz in the Saxony area of Germany is dealing with the Shield and Sword rock music festival, a favored gathering for neo-Nazis and other like-minded creeps.

The only thing worse than a Nazi is a drunk Nazi, so people in Ostritz had that in mind when they came up with an "evil" plan.

A court had earlier ruled that booze would be banned inside the event, so Ostritz residents figured the Nazis would buy their beer in town on the way to the festival.

So, residents raided the local supermarket and bought every last bit of beer in there before the festival-going right wing assholes couldn't get any.

Double bonus: Townspeople could down a nice cold one or two while holding their own peaceful demonstration agains the Neo-Nazis. It's a win-win.

No word from the Nazi creeps if they were unduly thirsty during the festival. Poor babies.

Mad Gardener Might Have Booby Trapped The Pansies With Bombs

Gardening usually makes people happy, like the pair in this stock photo.
But a German gardener apparently took his job very, very angrily. 

One of my jobs, in the warmer time of year, is to tend peoples' gardens.

I'm happy to report I've never had any kind of serious dispute with any of my clients. But if I did, rest assured I wouldn't go to the lengths a gardener in Germany seems to have done.

BBC reported this about the German gardener:

"Bernhard Graumann 59, was found dead on Friday. Police believe he may be behind an explosive trap that killed a 64-year-old doctor on the same day. Two other people with connections to Graumann were injured by an exploding piece of firewood in their home."

A 37-year old woman threw the log in a wood stove, unaware it was booby trapped. It exploded, injuring her and her daughter, age 4. The mother and daughter's injuries weren't life threatening, but still.

Another booby trapped log was found at another house where Graumann had dispute with the homeowner, but the homeowner found it. Police were called, and they blew it up away from anyone and anywhere it could cause harm, the Associated Press reported.

At least 60 people have called a hotline set up after these incidents. The people were worried they'd had a dispute with Graumann and might have been targeted.

Authorities suggest anybody who had a conflict with Graumann while he tended their gardens maybe ought not totally trust their plots of daffodils and early spring vegetables.

You never know what might explode.

Police searched Graumann's home, where they found gunpowder and other items covered by German explosive regulations, says the BBC.

I've always thought of gardening as a peaceful endeavor. It gives me a sense calm, serenity, even when I'm working for a nitpicky client. I think that's true of just about everybody who gardens.

Which tells me this Graumann character in Germany really had problems.

Best Political Photo Of The Year So Far

I'm on a trip and don't have tine to post much, but I'll quickly share what I think is the best political photo of 2017 so far.

It shows German Chancellor Angela Merkel with a drag queen named Olivia Jones.

Jones was a delegate at an otherwise sober ceremony to choose a new German president. (a position separate from Chancellor.)

There's another good photo below of Jones with delegates

A Case Study On The Fight Between Alt Right Bullcrap And The Main Stream Media

Um a few people DID misbehave in Germany on New Years Eve
but it wasn't exactly an Islamic fundamentalist insurgency
at Breitbart suggests in this article

Having safely installed their hero Donald Trump as President and secured their man, Steve Bannon as their chief of staff, Breitbart News seems like it has now turned its attention to the upcoming German elections.  

Although they're probably not coordinating with Breitbart, I'm sure Russia is delighted by the wacko right wing "news" site's help.

The latest bit of drama involves a Breitbart "news" article that "informs" us that a mob of Islamic extremists, numbering around 1,000 or so and yelling "Allahu Akbar" (God is Great) set a church on fire in the city of Dortmund.

The Breitbart headline read, "Revealed: 1,000 man mob attack police, set Germany's oldest church alight on New Year's Eve."  The article went on to say the mob was massing around al Qaeda and Islamic flags

Dortmund Police said the reality was a whole lot tamer than what Breitbart envisioned. To me, it's not even news.

Yep, lots of people were out celebrating New Year's Eve in Dortmund. Some of them might have been Muslim.  Some people in the crowd definitely took things too far, but this was also not anything remotely resembling an Islamic extremist insurgency in Germany.

Police said an  average number of  people were arrested for misbehaving on New Year's Eve, the Guardian reports

There's no evidence the crowd was actually celebrating Islamic extremists  in Dortmund. A stray spark from fireworks did cause  a small fire in some netting in construction scaffolding at the church.

The minor blaze was quickly put out. The church, which is not the oldest in Germany, was undamaged, says the Guardian.

Yawn.

My conspiratorial mind thinks Breitbart wanted to help stir up right-wind passions in Germany to help continue the authoritarian march across the globe let by Putin.

I couldn't find the church article on Breitbart, but their front page feature has them apoplectic over a New York Times article this past Sunday that suggested ways to thwart fake news sites.

Third parties and bots often place advertising in web sites, and the business or entity that's being advetised is often unaware of which web sites its on.

This is why ads seem to "follow" you from site to site. Algorthms latch on to your interests, and those ads that target you follow you. Even if you go to websites the advertiser doesn't like.

Those advertisers can, of course, ask to be removed from those sites, and that's what the New York times highlighted.

The New York Times article highlighted a Twitter group called Sleeping Giants that alerts businesses and non-profits that they're being advertised on sites that promote lies, white supremacists or bullying that can inspire attacks on Muslims, women, gays, you name it.

Sleeping Giants has targeted Breitbart in particular lately because "they're the biggest fish," a founder of Sleeping Giants told the New York Times.

Just today, Sleeping Giants crowed that they got the travel booking website Trevago from advertisting at Breitbart.

Of course today, Breitbart countered that it's the New York Times that's the purveryor of fake news.

Breitbart said the New York Times is being hypocritcial because they say they're for press freedom and at the same time they are trying to squelch the journalism of Breitbart.

Though I question whether Breitbart is journalistm, but whatever.

I guess everybody has their own reality now, so nothing is truly fact based. They'll believe whatever they want to believe.

For its part, Breitbart is doubling down on its "reporting" from  Germany (We can't disappoint our rabid readers with a retraction, can we!)

If you read Breitbart's doubling down article in reaction to the take down by main stream media, notice the um, double speak.

The problem is Breitbart is a master at using certain words that incite hate. The Guardian might refer to the people in the city square in Germany as New Year's Eve crowd. Breitbart calls them a "mob."

Breitbart plays with definitions. German police said most of the people in the square were "peaceful" Breitbart says they were not because some were lauching fireworks, and others were "egging" them on.

The video that even Breitbart posts to "prove' their point shows, yes, people illegally launching fireworks, while most in the crowd stand and gawk at the spectacle, at an outdoor party that's gone out of control. To me, gawking is peaceful enough.

Breitbart was also forced to backtrack on the Allahu Akbar shouts. They admit in the follow up that that phrase is about as common as when Christians say "Amen."

As Matt Gertz in Media Matters points out, Breitbart in its original reporting strung three separate facts together to create a false nightmare scenario.

1. There were about 1,000 people in the square.
2. A few of them shouting "Allah Akbar"
3. One person got careless with fireworks, starting a small blaze.

These three facts became this in Breitbart world: "A mob of more than, 1,000 men chanted "Allah Akbar launched fireworks at police and set fire to a historic church."

Bit of a difference, eh?

Breitbart claims its facts were accurate, but Media Matters points out the obvious: You can't string together facts  to create new "facts."

As Gertz wrote: "The relationship that Breitbart claimed existed between those facts is also relevant in terms of whether the story is accurate."

Everybody always accuses their opponent of twisting the facts. Breitbart takes it to a new art form.

I guess it's a war between the misinformation campaign by the likes of Breitbart and the people who want to squelch the misinformation by hitting where it hurts: The revenue stream.

It's a bare knuckle fight that I see going on for a long time.

And it's one of those fights that will make or break the Trump administration, and perhaps American and democracy itself.

Man Harvesting Carrots Finds His Lost Wedding Ring

The carrot and the found wedding ring in Germany.  

Just because I, we need a distraction, today I bring you breaking news from Germany:

An elderly man harvesting carrots found the wedding ring he lost three years ago, wrapped tightly around a carrot, reports Nothing To Do But Arborath.

The man lost the ring while gardening three years ago and gave up hope of ever finding it again.

His wife said it would turn up eventually. Sadly, his wife died six months ago, but she was right: The ring was safely wrapped around a carrot.

Probably the tastiest carrot that guy ever had.

Chutzpah: Old Woman Alters Artwork, Now Wants Copywright On It For "Improvments"

An elderly woman "improve" a piece of artwork'
depicting a crossword puzzle and now shes'
claiming copywright control over it.  

The Nuremberg, Germany Neuse Museum recently had on loan a piece of artwork by 20th century artist Arthur Kopcke that depicts a crossword puzzle.

A 90-year old woman, identified only as Hannelore K. visited the gallery and started filling in the crossword puzzle on the artpiece becuase it bore the phrases "insert words" and "so it suits."

OK, I get it that a 90 year old woman might get confused a bit and not realize she's not supposed to touch the artwork in a museum.

So far, she hasn't gotten in trouble, though police are investigating her. The museum went to work restoring the artwork to its original condition. The piece had an estimated value of $90,000

However, according to Ars Technica, Hannelore lawyered up and, in a demonstration of pretty huge chutzpah, is now claiming copywright control over Kopcke's piece.

Hannelore's lawyer said she increased the value of the work by bringing the relatively unknown Kopcke to the attention of the public. And her "invigorating re-working," as the lawyer put it, of the exhibit increased its worth.

With that, the lawyer summed up, Hannelore now owns the copywright to the work, since she "improved" it.

Hannelor could technically, in theory,  have the backing, sort of, of the original artist. Ars Technica says that Kopcke was part of an art movement called Fluxus, which stated that museums really didn't have the authority to determine the value of art, and Fluxus art involved the viewer.

Hannelor certainly involved herself in the artwork.

Should I start going to musuems and "improving" artwork? Put a mustache on Mona Lisa? Make the subject of "The Scream" seem happier?

I could make a lot of money doing this, huh?

Weird Carbon Dioxide Leak Turns German City Into Fog Machine

Leaking carbon dioxide created this weird fog
in Mainz, Germany last week.  

Just before Christmas, a tanker truck full of carbon dioxide pulled up next to a Champagne producers building in Germany.

I guess they were getting ready for the holidays.

Something went wrong, and the carbon dioxide leaked from the truck.

The result was this weird fog of carbon dioxide, no more than waist high, covering some of the streets in central Mainz, Germany.

The carbon dioxide was heavier than the surrounding air and clung close to the ground. It was so thick that nobody could drive their cars out. The visibility was too low.

People in the neighborhood were warned to stay out of basements and some first floors, since the high concentration of carbon dioxide would crowd out the oxygen, potentially asphyxiating people.

The superchilled carbon dioxide slightly injured the truck driver involved.

The carbon dioxide eventually dispersed, adding a tiny little bit to the greenhouse gases that are warming the planet.

Here's a video of the incident: It's a news account of the leak in German, but you'll get the point:

Dark, Emotional German Ad Puts New Twist On Christmas Heartstrings

Scene from the controversial Christmas ad
from the German gorcery chain Edeka. 

Christmas ads are all designed to pull at the heartstrings, and really manipulate your emotions, more so than advertisements other times of year.

Some of these Christmas ads are quite good, as I've noted in past posts. Most of the ads are terrible.

Now, pointed out to me by the web site Mashable, here's an ad from the German supermarket chain Edeka that, at least for the most part, is much darker than most rosy holiday ads.

The characters in the ad are also very manipulated, but seem surprisingly willing to forgive the manipulator for it

As Mashable notes, the manipulation depicted in the ad might not be the best way to do things, but oh well.

I also don't know how the ad advances the cause of buying groceries, but oh well.  The ad is interesting and provocative.  It was just posted on YouTube on November 28 and already has gotten 30 million views  and counting fast.

Many people love LOVE the ad. "Very powerful ad that highllights an important issue for many older people: loneliness," tweeted Jeff Tijssen, according to the New York Daily News.

Others hate it.  During a Today show segment about the ad, co-host Savannah Guthrie said. "That is the worst thing I've ever, ever seen.....Oh, it's morbid."

In this television advertisement, we see a lonely old man in December, who gets phone calls from all his children, all saying things have gotten too busy and they can't make it for a Christmas visit this year.

We then have clips of the old man eating alone in dim light in his house near a Christmas tree, interspersed with scenes from the frantic lives of his adult children.

Then the adult children get the news right before Christmas itself: Their lonely father has passed away. The busy kids, now grieving, interrupt their lives and head to their father's home town to make arrangements for the funeral.

And then......Watch the video, and see what you think of this one:

Moronic Motorists Everywhere: Watch This Jerk In Germany

The fire truck is in a hurry. So what
does the idiot in the green car do? Watch.  

Everybody who knows me is probably sick of me complaining about the minority of motorists out there who find new and creative ways to be incredibly stupid and incredible jerks.

I guess this is an international problem.

Watch how idiotic the person in the green car in this video is as a fire truck that's obviously in a hurry for some emergency comes upon the moron.

As an aside, I like German fire truck sirens more than American fire truck sirens.

Can anybody be that oblivious, or passively-aggressively this mean?:

German Town Welcomes Neo-Nazis, But Believe It Or Not, For A Very Good Reason

A stupid neo-Nazi guy marches past a motivational
banner in Wunsiedel, Germany as he realizes
the town has duped him into donating to
an anti-Nazi charity.  

The cheering residents in the town of Wunsiedel, Germany warmly welcomed a bunch of neo-Nazis as they held an annual parade in the community on Saturday.

Don't worry, this isn't a case of shocking anti-Semitism and bigotry among residents of the town. They're actually very nice people.

They just decided to get a little creative with the annual march of the neo-Nazis. In the past, town residents totally dreaded this parade.

Rudolf Hess, Hitler's deputy, was buried in the town in 1987 after his death.

Though the body was exhumed in 2011 and cremated, the fact that Hess' grave was in Wunsiedel meant that the neo-Nazis held their annual rally there.

The good residents of Wunsiedel hated, hated this annual parade. Then somebody got an idea.

According to British newspaper The Independent, here's what happened:

"Instead of protesting against the demonstration, shop owners and residents in Wunsiedel pledged to donate 10 euros for each meter the neo-Nazis marched.

They managed to raise 10,00 euros. The money went towards EXIT-Deutschland, a charity that helps people leave neo-Nazi groups."

Ten thousand euros is about $12,500 in American currency, so you can see the town of Wunsiedel raised a pretty good chunk of change.

The dumb neo-Nazis had no idea what was going on of course, until after the demonstration, or at least well into it, when they realized the town had duped them.

Here's how The Independent described what must have been a hilarious scene:

"The pro-Hess marchers had no idea until they began their walk, noticing along the route that villagers had set up motivational signs and showered them with confetti when they finished.

A sign explained to them they had just raised money against themselves as they crossed the finishing line. 

The villagers even provided food for the neo-Nazis along their journey. The edibles were on offer under a banner that read 'Mein Mampf' meaning 'My Food.'"

The trick on the neo-Nazis was organized by a group called Rechts gegen Rechts, or Right against Right, with the full cooperation of the town, of course.

Organizers of the trick admit the neo-Nazis will probably be back next year, since Hess is so important to this creepy bunch of so-called people.

But at least now, residents of Wunsiedel won't have to cringe every time the neo-Nazis show up. They can just put out the donation buckets and get the confetti ready for the next march.

LOTS of Beer For Angela Merkel

If you feel boneheaded for screwing something up, tripping over someone, or just briefly being an idiot, watch the video below from a German news broadcast. You're sure to feel better about yourself afterward, because you surely didn't screw up that badly.

Seems German Chancellor Angela Merkel, hard working woman that she is, finally got a chance to sit down for a nice beer. She runs the right country to do that, after all.

Along comes her server, who, well, watch. The newscast is in German, but you don't need a translation. At least Merkel appeared to take the incident in good humor.