Peter is leaving at the end of next month. The card is next to the files by Andrea's office. Please send contributions to the following account.
Is this something to do with Musk?
No. BartholemewRoberts complained about inane emails and gave Janice's missing water bottle as an example. I picked up the hook and ran with it, giving mock examples of inane emails I get at work. I can't go into too much detail without identifying the organisation I work for, so I gave the nonspecific ones. I didn't make up the "period awareness" one.
Mrs Biggles (along with every girlfriend I had in the past) seems perfectly aware of her period without any external help. I had thought that was the norm. Evidently not.
Thinking about it, it may have been menopause awareness. As previously stated I have a swiss cheese memory these days.
Peter is leaving at the end of next month. The card is next to the files by Andrea's office. Please send contributions to the following account.
We have accidentally installed some highly vulnerable software to everyone's laptops. Please don't use it. If you have already, and your item number is less than 2400, please submerge it in the nearest bath for at least 30 seconds.
Peter is leaving at the end of next month. The card is next to the files by Andrea's office. Please send contributions to the following account.
Is this something to do with Musk?
No. BartholemewRoberts complained about inane emails and gave Janice's missing water bottle as an example. I picked up the hook and ran with it, giving mock examples of inane emails I get at work. I can't go into too much detail without identifying the organisation I work for, so I gave the nonspecific ones. I didn't make up the "period awareness" one.
Mrs Biggles (along with every girlfriend I had in the past) seems perfectly aware of her period without any external help. I had thought that was the norm. Evidently not.
Thinking about it, it may have been menopause awareness. As previously stated I have a swiss cheese memory these days.
We had a menopause awareness session with my team of 30 (90% female and mostly of a certain age). I learned a lot
Peter is leaving at the end of next month. The card is next to the files by Andrea's office. Please send contributions to the following account.
Is this something to do with Musk?
No. BartholemewRoberts complained about inane emails and gave Janice's missing water bottle as an example. I picked up the hook and ran with it, giving mock examples of inane emails I get at work. I can't go into too much detail without identifying the organisation I work for, so I gave the nonspecific ones. I didn't make up the "period awareness" one.
The internet would still be a (mostly) wonderful place today if every time someone sent a message or email they had to put a small amount of money, say 20 pence. Because it would stop them posting unnecessary messages without preventing them from posting important ones because almost everyone can afford that much. Dial-up internet fees used to do the same thing for the first 10 years or so of the internet.
Trump is now pretending that his administration was backing CDU all along when both the VP and Shadow President Musk very explicitly tried to get center-right Germans to vote AfD instead.
Trump likes winners and those who back winners, which is good for Merz but not so good for Elon and Vance (even if he might secretly have backed the AfD he was sensible enough not to back them publicly so he can now praise the 'conservative' CDU win)
Peter is leaving at the end of next month. The card is next to the files by Andrea's office. Please send contributions to the following account.
Is this something to do with Musk?
No. BartholemewRoberts complained about inane emails and gave Janice's missing water bottle as an example. I picked up the hook and ran with it, giving mock examples of inane emails I get at work. I can't go into too much detail without identifying the organisation I work for, so I gave the nonspecific ones. I didn't make up the "period awareness" one.
The internet would still be a (mostly) wonderful place today if every time someone sent a message or email they had to put a small amount of money, say 20 pence. Because it would stop them posting unnecessary messages without preventing them from posting important ones because almost everyone can afford that much. Dial-up internet fees used to do the same thing for the first 10 years or so of the internet.
Blimey I owe someone 1184 quid just for the rubbish I've posted on here
Is it possible to order a national recount if they're within a few votes of the 5% total?
I asked someone this at a previous election and they said recounts don't exist in Germany, unless there is a court order due to alleged foul play or something like that.
Mike Sington @MikeSington · 2h “It’s over!” James Carville predicts the Trump administration is going to completely collapse in “less than 30 days”. He advises Dems to sit back and let it happen. (Video: SiriusXM/Mediaite)
Trump and Musk are chaotic, but everyone fought too hard and bitter to 'completely collapse', even something has to give from this frenetic beginning.
The thing about America - a blessing that is also a curse - is that owing to its advantages you can monumentally screw up with dreadful policies and its economy is resiliant enough to wear it before you are called on it.
It's virtually impossible to do a Truss even if you're promising tariffs and massive unfunded tax cuts for the richest. The benefits of being the world's reserve currency and largest economy.
That may change over time, but is liable to be a slow motion decline as advantages are eroded, corruption and scandals pile up and when a crash is magnified by guard rails being removed. That's not happening immediately even if you think Trump and Musk's moves are disastrous.
The 3 seats to come are reportedly Mannheim, Viersen & Flensburg-Schleswig.
Then they won't make it I think. Unlikely to do well in Flensburg, and the other 2 I don't see why they wouldn't be close to the West German average (ie under 5%)
Wow what drama at the end . I’m not sure how many thousands of votes made the difference but this is a huge result for Mertz because having to rely on the Greens would have made a massive difference and made it almost impossible to get a coalition together .
CDU/CSU 28.6% AFD 20.8% SPD 16.4% Green 11.6% Linke 8.8%
CDU's turn in the hotseat to quickly become very unpopular lol
I think Merz will be a good chancellor, he will cut spending and tax, control the borders and reduce immigration to Germany and increase German aid to Ukraine.
The SPD as his likely coalition partners (the Greens won't accept his expansion of nuclear energy) can share any unpopularity and the AfD as largest party of opposition will keep their share but remain too extreme for most Germans
CDU/CSU 28.6% AFD 20.8% SPD 16.4% Green 11.6% Linke 8.8%
CDU's turn in the hotseat to quickly become very unpopular lol
I think Merz will be a good chancellor, he will cut spending and tax, control the borders and reduce immigration to Germany and increase German aid to Ukraine.
The SPD as his coalition partners can share any unpopularity and the AfD in opposition will keep their share but remain too extreme for most Germans
Merz campaigned on immigration even in the early 2000s when he was a rival to Merkel, so there's a chance he will quitely steal the AfD's clothes and try to render them irrelevant.
It’s pretty clear now that European leaders have to act on immigration and that’s a whole lot easier for Mertz without needing the Greens . Whatever side of the debate you’re on it’s evident that people are worried about that . For the EU countries it’s not really about FOM but immigration from outside of there.
"Berlin-based journalist Thomas Vorreyer points out that had the vote been based only on those aged between 35 and 44 the AfD would have come out top. 26% of people in that age category voted for the far right party, with the CDU/CSU in second place on 24%."
A wooden spoon to whoever wrote this. I know it's late, but this is your job.
"Final results
The results are in, confirming the CDU/CSU on 28.5%, the AfD in second place on 20.8% – its best result ever – the SPD slumping by 10 percentage points to 16.4% and the Greens to 11.6%.
The Left has surged to 8.8% and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance has just snuck in with exactly 5%."
There'll be many words and maps about how badly Germany has done at integrating its East since reunification. Here's the other side of it --- how well East Germany has done since reunification and how much better off it is than North England today. https://x.com/thomasforth/status/1893732737682399343
There'll be many words and maps about how badly Germany has done at integrating its East since reunification. Here's the other side of it --- how well East Germany has done since reunification and how much better off it is than North England today. https://x.com/thomasforth/status/1893732737682399343
I don't entirely believe statistics showing the North of England to be in a terrible state.
There'll be many words and maps about how badly Germany has done at integrating its East since reunification. Here's the other side of it --- how well East Germany has done since reunification and how much better off it is than North England today. https://x.com/thomasforth/status/1893732737682399343
I don't entirely believe statistics showing the North of England to be in a terrible state.
Off topic, but I'm a mod so I can get away with it:
Groq (not Grok) is absolutely amazing. It's a platform for running opensource LLMs (like LLaMa or DeepSeek), and it runs at 5x the speed of ChatGPT or Grok or Claude. It is absolutely staggering what a difference it makes when replies appear instantly.
If you combine it with Open WebUI, you can hook these models up to the Internet, and have your own personal ChatGPT that is simply better than ChatGPT.
Have you tried Cerebras? Leaves groq in the dust in my tests.
Cooper goes to a sex club full of beautiful women and signs up, being told they won't stop until he says the safe word which he laughs at as why would he want them to stop? Then as soon as he agrees the girls leave, the club gets transformed into BDSM, the girls are replaced with men, and the safe word is an unintelligible word he can't say so matters get worse.
I thought the FDP pulled out of the coalition with the SDP and Greens which is what triggered the election?
That’s what the SDP claimed. But if you looked at the first 48 hours the SDP had a grid and control of the narrative while the FDP was all over the place - they were caught completely by surprise
There'll be many words and maps about how badly Germany has done at integrating its East since reunification. Here's the other side of it --- how well East Germany has done since reunification and how much better off it is than North England today. https://x.com/thomasforth/status/1893732737682399343
I don't entirely believe statistics showing the North of England to be in a terrible state.
"Berlin-based journalist Thomas Vorreyer points out that had the vote been based only on those aged between 35 and 44 the AfD would have come out top. 26% of people in that age category voted for the far right party, with the CDU/CSU in second place on 24%."
But even in that narrow band it's barely a quarter of the vote. Indeed only 6 % better than the national vote share overall. The vote is not even geographically, but must be fairly even by age, compared with UK political parties. The pro-immigration parties (Greens and Linke) did well with the young.
Merz looks to be able to form a stable government strong on Defence and Ukraine, though we shall see how well it works on Germanys economic malaise. I would expect a fairly robust response to Trump's tarrifs.
"Berlin-based journalist Thomas Vorreyer points out that had the vote been based only on those aged between 35 and 44 the AfD would have come out top. 26% of people in that age category voted for the far right party, with the CDU/CSU in second place on 24%."
But even in that narrow band it's barely a quarter of the vote. Indeed only 6 % better than the national vote share overall. The vote is not even geographically, but must be fairly even by age, compared with UK political parties. The pro-immigration parties (Greens and Linke) did well with the young.
Merz looks to be able to form a stable government strong on Defence and Ukraine, though we shall see how well it works on Germanys economic malaise. I would expect a fairly robust response to Trump's tarrifs.
Be interesting to see whether that response includes a number of Taurus cruise missiles slamming into Russian hydrocarbons infrastructure. Or into the Kerch Bridge.
Or whether the US Ambassador - probably now somebody called Billy-Bub - has a quiet word in his ear.
Your comment on Bluesky is a bit more opinionated:
There's a massive divide in many countries between empathetic young women and incel men radicalised in the online manosphere and through violent gaming.
Comments
Scroll down to precise numbers and calculate % yourself.
https://www.bundeswahlleiterin.de/en/bundestagswahlen/2025/ergebnisse/bund-99/land-15/wahlkreis-71.html
https://www.bundeswahlleiterin.de/en/bundestagswahlen/2025/ergebnisse/bund-99.html
How many do they get in a typical East German seat?
So still too close to call
East German seat in I THINK.
It's virtually impossible to do a Truss even if you're promising tariffs and massive unfunded tax cuts for the richest. The benefits of being the world's reserve currency and largest economy.
That may change over time, but is liable to be a slow motion decline as advantages are eroded, corruption and scandals pile up and when a crash is magnified by guard rails being removed. That's not happening immediately even if you think Trump and Musk's moves are disastrous.
*1 not literally
Flensburg-Schleswig
Viersen
Mannheim
https://www.bundeswahlleiterin.de/en/bundestagswahlen/2025/ergebnisse/bund-99/land-1/wahlkreis-1.html
https://www.bundeswahlleiterin.de/en/bundestagswahlen/2025/ergebnisse/bund-99/land-8/wahlkreis-275.html
https://www.bundeswahlleiterin.de/en/bundestagswahlen/2025/ergebnisse/bund-99/land-5/wahlkreis-110.html
https://www.bundeswahlleiterin.de/en/bundestagswahlen/2025/ergebnisse/bund-99/land-5/wahlkreis-110.html
Viersen in.
Flensburg very near Danish border.
EDIT: It borders Denmark I THINK (unless it's on coast - there is no Germany to the north of it).
Danish seat in.
Mannheim still to come.
https://www.bundeswahlleiterin.de/en/bundestagswahlen/2025/ergebnisse/bund-99/land-1/wahlkreis-1.html
SPD 25.3%
Greens 21.1%
CDU 18.2%
FDP 13.1%
AfD 9.1%
Left 5.0%
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mannheim_(electoral_district)#2021_election
https://bundeswahlleiterin.de/bundestagswahlen/2025/ergebnisse/bund-99/land-8/wahlkreis-275.html
BSW 4.973%
AFD 20.8%
SPD 16.4%
Green 11.6%
Linke 8.8%
Total of above = 86.2%
CDU/CSU + SPD has 45% - well over half of the 86.2%.
BSW got 2,468,670 votes.
Short by 13,434 votes.
Hopefully AfD have peaked and fall back from here not continue to rise due to the inevitable grand coalition.
Union 28.52%
AfD 20.80%
SPD 16.41%
Grn 11.61%
Linke 8.77%
BSW 4.97%
FDP 4.33%
FW 1.55%
Animals 0.97%
Others 2.06%
https://www.bundeswahlleiterin.de/en/bundestagswahlen/2025/ergebnisse/bund-99.html
The previous coalition parties received 32.35%.
Union + SPD = 44.94%.
The SPD as his likely coalition partners (the Greens won't accept his expansion of nuclear energy) can share any unpopularity and the AfD as largest party of opposition will keep their share but remain too extreme for most Germans
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/feb/23/german-election-live-olaf-scholz-alice-weidel-afd-friedrich-merz-germany-latest-news
"Final results
The results are in, confirming the CDU/CSU on 28.5%, the AfD in second place on 20.8% – its best result ever – the SPD slumping by 10 percentage points to 16.4% and the Greens to 11.6%.
The Left has surged to 8.8% and the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance has just snuck in with exactly 5%."
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2025/feb/23/german-election-live-olaf-scholz-alice-weidel-afd-friedrich-merz-germany-latest-news
They predicted Union 213, AfD 146, SPD 109, Greens 94, Left 67, Others 1.
The result was Union 208, AfD 151, SPD 121, Greens 85, Left 64, Others 1.
https://www.economist.com/interactive/2025-german-election-polls-prediction-forecast/forecast
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_polling_for_the_next_United_Kingdom_general_election#2025
https://www.1news.co.nz/2025/02/22/china-secures-maritime-presence-in-cook-islands/
https://x.com/thomasforth/status/1893732737682399343
Mertz ought to have been the Union leader 20 years ago, not the hapless Merkel.
Merz looks to be able to form a stable government strong on Defence and Ukraine, though we shall see how well it works on Germanys economic malaise. I would expect a fairly robust response to Trump's tarrifs.
Or whether the US Ambassador - probably now somebody called Billy-Bub - has a quiet word in his ear.
There's a striking gender divide in young people between males and females over politics developing with 34% of 18-24 year old women supporting Linke.
https://bsky.app/profile/foxinsoxuk.bsky.social/post/3livppjqecs2b
This is increasingly an international phenomenon.
There's a massive divide in many countries between empathetic young women and incel men radicalised in the online manosphere and through violent gaming.