While the covid 19 death toll in Germany is merely inching towards 9300 the US tally is soaring over 180,000
likely to top 250,000 by election day and 300,000 by the end of the year with talk of reducing testing and tracing efforts. Don al Dumpo does not give a damn about the health or lives of people who cannot afford expensive treatment,
but has done his best to dismantle US health care and will not follow doctors´ orders on how to deal with a pandemic.
Having gun toters during a protest demonstration speak at a presidential nomination convention must be deemed the willful incitement of others to act as vigilantes at other demonstrations. Provoking violence against peaceful demonstrations is how one gets the kind of anarchy that needs suppression so you can call it "restoring law and order". In truth it is what Vladimir Putin's stooge is doing to make a second rate power out of a great nation. Beware America! He is dividing a house against itself, and even Lincoln knew that such a house cannot stand. |
Covid 19 has been dealt with rather well in Germany, but getting the economy going again ought to take into account the the tourist industry cannot and ought not to be brought back to what it was.
Burning tons and tons of kerosine to fly millions of people half way around the world so they can ly on exotic beaches for days on end was causing a significant amount of the unneeded CO2 causing climate change. So paying out shorttime wage benefits to keep pilots and flight attendants available for renewed jobs in a year or three is anything but a future oriented policy. It is not an investment in anything good for the future, but a give-away that keeps people from looking for work now in areas that improve things for the future. The government was, however, wise enough to limit purchase premiums to vehicles without conventional combustion engines. |
Unlike Greta Thunberg, I believe even know we have evil leaders who think first and foremost on turning over a "smarter" balance sheet every year, and will always let the devil take the hindmost.Albeit, some are waking up and making some pathetic gestures: too little, too late, too slow. Another 19 years of coal power is far too long. The production of oversized combustion engines must be stopped and E and H2 exchange motors built immediately. Trade with the people destroying the rainwood forest must stop immediately. All rooves suitable for photovoltaic modules must get them immediately. |
On 1st September 2019 the Green Party did not quite double their vote count
and now habe 12 instead of 8 seats in the Saxon Legislature, although I was too far down on the party list to get in.
Until a maverick purported Green Party member in Nordrhein-Westphalen falsely claimed near the end of July that the Green Party wanted to raise a CO2 tax on diesel and gasoline,
a higher vote for the Greens was to be expected.
It smells like a subversive element to me.
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![]() and the local Grüne Leipzig, in particular for human, women�s and minority rights, freedom of the press, environmental protection, ecological agriculture, cultural events and social justice. What I especially want to change or emphasize in Leipzig, Saxony and Germany: (Sitting in Saxony�s provincial legislature with one vote of 120, a single legislator can hardly change anything but he/she is listened to more carefully.) I like Saxony and Leipzig, but . . . a lot ought to be better: 1. There are not enough teachers to teach full schedules at schools. We have been complaining about this for years,
but the problem just gets worse, because new appointments do not keep pace with retirees. The salaries are below those of other provinces and
the CDU government is stingy when it comes to university appointments too. Many graduating teachers leave for other provinces. Others do not even
work towards an education degree for the lack of financial support for the course of study.
Despite all procrastination efforts to keep coal power viable the industry is going the way of the dinosaurs, as the Co2 certificates needed for its continuance make coal power too expensive to compete with gas power. So a rapid expansion of wind and solar power is absolutely imperative to take up the slack sooner. Although coal power plants have been shut down for a good part of 2019 the government is planning to grant compensation to the coal power sector rather than liquidating the entire branch. That money should be invested in photovoltaic, biogas and wind energy production instead. The government of Saxony is letting a crash of our power supply catch us off guard, as they have failed to present a plan for ending dependence on coal power plants.
For the cost of coal power is higher than power from gas, photovoltaic and or wind energy. The insolvency of coal power plants is only a matter of months,
after which they can only be kept running at the expense of lost subsidies. On the other hand putting photovoltaic on all the rooves without them now would
produce enough power to replace the coal power plants. The costs would be covered by the power produced over a period of ten years.
Of course, for seasonal and daily power fluctuation a mix with power from large and micro wind power systems and accumulators would be needed.
A tax on kerosine is, however, adviseable, specifically to the amount that would make travel by rail competitive in cost to that of traveling by air.
A tanking requirement without deduction of VAT for flights abroad seems to be required for the same reasons in order to better control this source of CO2 emissions.
8. Plastics need to be recycled. For plastics that cannot be recycled for the same kind of use new uses have to be found, possibly as supporting and insulating cores for a kind of Lego block for building houses where the outside of the block is a brick or concrete layer that is entirely fire resistant and the interior has standard channels for wiring, water and drain pipes. 9. The Minister of Transportation�s plan to reduce the VAT on train tickets from 19 % to 7 % is good, but making them VAT free is better. After all we want to transport more people by electrically powered trains and fewer by motor traffic on the roads with all the emissions. And German Rail would have the money needed for all the investments needed to fulfill their task. 10. Backlog of school building repairs: At the end of last year we talked about this acute problem in Leipzig`s schools and our Katharina Krefft on the City Council with the support of the rest of the Green fraction on the City Council voted in a double budget for 2019/20 with the consent of all other parties, that provided sufficient fund for ending this neglect. So the political work has been done. Now it is up to the city administration to manage "only" the tickelish tasks of finding enough construction firms for doing the work and juggling the class schedules of the overfilled schools so that the men can mak the noise of their work. 11. The most important characteristic and goal of good breeding is promoting self confidence in children - an entirely subjective feeling with no objective characteristics.
If children gain this feeling with positive accomplishments, they do not resort so quickly to bullying, graqfiti, fighting, destroying property, drugs and alcohol,
because they recognize they have better and more rewarding things to do with their time;
for the latter evils compensate an inferiority complex with feelings of abnormal self confidence.
12. Music instruction in the schools is a further way to improve personality development. The current offers as extracurricular activities are rather good.
But not all children who should actually take advantage of them, because their participation is not graded and is thus deemed secondary by parents.
Cost is also a factor for low income families, while petitioning for a subsidy at the welfare office means spending another unpaid morning in line.
13. Hurrah, the federal government finally did something to end the exploitation of package deliverers. What about the exploitation in all part time jobs? Even if the hourly wage is over the minimum pay level, people are often involved who are effectively unemployed and cannot pay anything for their social security. The entire system of job training and higher education consists significantly of part time teachers with contracts limited to one semester and 10 hours or less per week without social insurance. No one can live on that and pay for old age security and health insurance too. 50 years ago this was not allowed, then the limit for employment free of social insurance charges was raised again and again, certainly not at the request of those employed, but because the state was too stingy again to pay decent wages for qualified teachers. |
14. Rural areas have other problems: Rationalisation measures can steal schools, grocery stores, rail and bus connections and medical services all too quickly.
That is why we need stronger Green representation from the country in Saxony�s legislature. So the country mouse gets his piece of cake too.
In all events, give your local Green candidate your first ticket vote even if you prefer me or someone else for the second vote. The population shift from rural areas to cities has gone on for centuries, but in the last few decades it has become so rapid that there is a virtual drain of village populations and total loss of property value. This is because not enough is done to support new business there. Subsidizing biogas production would simultaneously create more jobs there, produce more renewable energy and reduce the Nitrate levels in ground water. Such systems take place where photovoltaic modules can be mounted on the roof. and where there is energy other production lines can be run and jobs created. Is the goverenment in Dresden sleeping? He who seeketh not, findeth not. Was it noth the CDU government in Berlin that cancelled subsidies for biogas production? Actually it ought to be booming in rural areas, not a land of undergrowth where Sleeping Beauty lies forever unawaken. After biogas production there is a mass of high nitrate content which is surely capable of further biochemical use: a task for the chemists. 15. An effective rent stopper Rising rental rates please the landlords and realtors. For the average consumer they are often a heavy cross to bear. When the rent in the city centers gets too expensive for the earner of wages under 12 Euros per hour who works to pay, he is damned to spend the rest of his working life commuting daily from out in the country to work and home again. This means up to 10 hours per week less time for the family and leisure, not to mention considerable transport costs. This is one reason for the low birth rate. it is also the driving power behind the public rage that has brought the sudden success of the AfD. Attempts to limit rent increases cannot return us to social peace and would be but a drop of water on a red hot iron. Far more an encompassing regulation should be found to settle the low wage recipient in his own safe and snazzy 4 walls near his place of work as the cornerstone of his old age security. The low wage earners make up 25 % of the population and those with a little more chicken feed than the poverty range 25 % more. Relatively few of the population living in rented housing are able to save enough in the course of 20 years of work to make a downpayment for the purchase of a flat or house, and then nowhere near where they work. Instead of the dream of their own four walls they are actually buying their place on the treadmill for 20 years of mortgage payments. And heaven forbid that their employer goes broke: Then everything is gone and in vain. To return to social peace, rental law has to be essentially changed to rent/purchase law with exceptions only for new construction, flats rented at or near rates for social housing, areas of low population and houses with about 5 flats, in which the landlord occupies one unit himself. The Civil Code on real estate law ought to be changed to better reflect the social commitment of land. It is an injustice that the rent subsidies and BfW loan grants that were adopted after the war to promote new housing and reconstruction projects and effectively paid for practically all of these investments should now be capitalized on by private owners to raise rents again and again over decades and ultimately throw people out onto the streets who have lived there for decades. It is an injustice that only the good earners in need of tax deductions should be snapping up all the refurbished apartments under monument protection provisions and driving up the purchase and rental prices. In comparison with the tax savings the rent from such purchases is insignificant, and yet rent subsidies are being paid and paid, while the tenants are paying the taxes. Such a transfer of most housing to a small fraction of the population could not bring anything good in the longterm. The Pegida demonstrations etc. over the last several months and the AfD gains at the ballot box show that many citizens who had been chronic non-voters for decades do not want to put up with being the stepchildren of the nation any longer. In many respects the surfs and slaves of days of yore were better off: at least they had certain work and a home. Now the poor are too often the victims of rationalisation and company bankruptcies. Agenda 2010 and the Riester nonsense brought a catastrophe for the low wage earner. In 1994 my pension expectation was higher than what I got at retirement in 2005 despite years of pension insurance payment in the mean time. Then the tax reform ten years ago subjected half of that subsistance pension subject to 25 % income tax. Rentsubsidies have to be change to make housing near places of work affordable and benfit rent/purchase agreements, because the costs of maintaining streets and public tranportation rise with the number of people who have to travel long distances to work and back home every day. A progressive property tax ought to be introduced that is not to be paid by the tenant as an effektive rent stopper. No increased tax for rents at the social rent level, but higher for every Euro per square meter more. These tax revenues can be used to subsidize rent/purchase agreements. Realtors force rent prices up by leaving housing units vacant and keeping quiet about the rent paid by the former tenant. To eliminate such tactics a co-operative ought to be formed between the rent subsidy office, the citizen registration office, the land register, the property tax office and the incomtax offices to supervize rented housing, rent out vacant housing or repectively subject to rent/purchase agreement. This co-operative should decide in the first instance in cases of differences of opinion between landlords and tenants to reduce costs and relieve the courts and delays. This co-operative should also be responsible for trading and transfering tenants� rights from rent/purchase agreements so that moving in case of a job or retirement etc. is necessary. Only rent agreements registered with this co-operative would be valid. The acquisition of housing under rent/purchase agreements is to serve as old age security and free of any liens and distraint measures so that there are no negative effects from hire and fire employment policies. How to continue stimulation of the building activities after initiating such a rent/purchase regulation is to be written on a different page. As indicated above new and refurbished housing have to be treated differently with respect to rent subsidies, land taxes and periods of rent/purchase agreement. Another possibility is relieving Employers by shifting part of the social insurance costs into the VAT calculation and reducing the state VAT revenues as a result of the progressive land tax. Within this structure the work of the German Pension Insurance should be expanded to include accumulation of reserves to be invested in housing loans, where the social need is more important than the income for granting such loans. This is the way to get the small earner into his own 4 walls without resorting to massive expropriations. 16. German rail owns vast areas of railroad tracks near the train stations in Leipzig and Dresden (and of course in all other cities) that could built over with apartment or terraced housing complexes with photovoltaic and micro wind power unit on their rooves and garden areas. Then the areas would be used 100 % for rail traffic as before, 100 % for housing or leisure, and 100 % for renewable energie and CO2 conversion. The rising commuter statistics would be reduced, as would the need for more mobility infrastructure. German rail would not have to invest so much to improve services and get more power suppliers. But if German rail should let these areas be exploited for commercial use, it would create more jobs in central areas, increase the number of commuters and the need for more investment: that would be as naive as business planning can get. To secure these areas for sensible city planning with housing ner places of work, optimized energy production and green areas, a federal law should be passed reducing German Rails rights to servitudes and empowering cities with the planning and distribution of housing units to persons with an interest in their acquisition as described here. The unique situation of building over rails with a minimum of traffic interruption will require the development of equipment on rail cars that have a high degree of automation for boring piles, Formen and moving material along the rails. But the same circumstances will be encountered in 100 cities, so the costs can be kept relatively low. 17. In Leipzig the Ring (and broader streets in other cities) could also be built over for developing safer walks and cycling paths and central housing with photovoltaic and micro wind power units on the rooves as well as green areas. This would reduce traffic noise besides otheer advantages. But the Ring is rather beautiful as it is, so high aesthetic standards would have to apply. The street and tram tracks would have to be laid 4 to 5 m lower, which makes it more expensive and a longterm development, as it would have to be co-ordinated with other infrastruture renewal projects. Completion would come in several steps over some 20 years, if the planning were to be started now. Rail and bus connections are very important, because they are often needed for schooling and training. Without public transportation more CO2 emissions are unavoidable. 18. The German Army: The government ended 2018 with extensive reports on how many tanks, ships and airplanes were not combat ready and in dire need of repair and how many soldiers were still needed to man them. The figures were intended to have the defense budget beefed up, but they only told me that the Defense Department (that has been run by the CDU/CSU since the "fabulous unDr. von und zu Gutenberg" came into and was promptly run out of office with nothing but scandals ever since) has only bummed on the job and done nothing to give us a credible defense. No house wife could do a worse job, any house wife could probably do it better. (No insult is meant to house wives, by the way.) 19. Disarmament: There are groups suggesting unilateral disarmament. No matter how much I distain war and weapons of mass distruction,
this idea seems like telling women they can go naked in the streets, because rape is a crime punishable by law.
With the invasion of a nation on the border of the EU and the countless other wars being conducted elsewhere in the world we cannot go without a credible and non-provocative defense.
20. The 4 track health care system is inefficient and in need of reform. Big salry earners pay insurance premiums on a limited amount of their salary and private coverage for extras. or choose private insurance for everything. Selfemployed can get relatively expensive coverage from the public health care system and can get privat coverage for the extras. Public officials get a percentage of any medical costs refunded and can get privately overinsured for the rest making it profitable to be sick. Consolidation of the system would bring relief for the public hand, and ending the limit on salaries for calculating premiums would allow allow lowering insurance rates and relieve employers, other employees and the low income self employed. 21. The end of the draft was greeted widely, because for many it collided with the education plans. On the other hand an Army reserve program with duty during the semester breaks would both beef up the armed forces with qualified people and bring the right vacation job for many students for financing their course of study. 23. Eliminating the limit of the amount of wages and salaries subject to social insurance would allow the pension insurance to form reserves in the form of loans for social housing or houses for the low income bracket. 24. Raising VAT on meat is inacceptable. The animal CO2 emissions are part of the species protection
that we want to achieve by reversing global warming. I respect the right of others to
vegatarian nutrition, but this idea violates the right of those who want
a portion of meat in their diet, to whom I count myself. Whether a human diet should contain meat is disputed.
And there are genetic differences among humans that could lead to different amounts of meat in the human diet for different people and at various ages.
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![]() We acquired a lot in 04509 Krostitz-Zschölkau in March 2018 and work began. |
First to go up was the garden house, 2.5 m by 3 m with an overhanging roof 3.26 m by 4.5 m slanted 12 degrees to the south: just fine for 8 photovoltaic modules. But first the drain pipe, water pipe and the the cable for the connection to the power mains had to be laid. Now any normal builder would have called in a contractor to dig the 23 meter trench and everything would have been ready for mounting the modules before June. But yours truly had 45 years of deskjob sinning behind him and enough flab, blood sugar etc. to show for it. Now being a doctor of law and the son as well as grandson of a doctor of medicine, these sins resulted in a self imposed sentence to hard labor under doctors` orders. Just the thing to kill the kilos. Not all gone yet, but going, going ...! By the end of October '18 the pipes and cables were in, the modules and a micro windpower unit ordered and paid for as well as a housing for the mains connection in place and the electrician invited. The internal wiring in the garden house delayed things though until after the beginning of winter, and the goose that laid the golden eggs was busied with other things until March. But then it was finally time for the modules to be securely mounted on the roof. Most important the Dr. Jur. serving the sentence to hard labor lost 6 kg and got a lot fitter. On 2nd April 2019 we began feeding electric power into the the main power network and had delivered 313 kWh of power on 3rd May, nearly 10 kWH per day. Then two more panels were added and total power production after using some for rototiller, lawnmower, hacker and drill had reached 1600 by the end of July. despite using a few hours of power for the electric rotor tiller. From November till the end of February power production will be noticeably less The micro windpower unit will be ready for use in May. This is rated for up to 1 kW and will somewhat equalize power delivery over the seasons and at night. Better figures will be available as we near a full year of operation. The micro wind turbine is waiting for a special self designed mast raising unit with a pulley device, that will raise to a height of 9 meters after the end of August. The main house will have a slightly steeper roof of 15 degrees and space for 75 photovoltaic modules and 4 micro windpower units. This should increase power production to aboout 110 kWh per day and bring a return of up to 5000 Euros per year. The total investment for the systems will come to about 50,000 Euros including the mains connection. An accumulator to equalize mains input and an e-car charging station will cost 4000 Euros after deducting the subsidies. |
There is plenty in the pipeline for this page, so come again soon!