Wieder Gut mit Lustig, Germany elects its President right now!
well, it's hard for you to follow that and I myself beaome aware about our Bundestag President Norbert Lammert only now. He spoke a couple of minutes ago to the German 'Bundesversammlung'. I hope to find English translations of his speech. The speech was at least for me thought provoking and fun to listen to, especially for its fine and subtle sarcasm at times. I think the speech and other politician's interview represent a wide range of our current position of Germany's political szene. I also learned that we have something like 'Wahlmaenner' (like electors). Wasn't aware of that. Well our President has no political powerful role, but rather a ceremonial one (though that was questioned as well) to play, so I had never paid attention to how he is elected.
Live blog in German of ARD TV is here. May be there will be more English translations of the many politicins' interviews. I hope to find an official translation of Lammert's speech. I have fun to watch my former boss as well. She is 'not bad'. 
A lot of quotes in here that are worth to know about
I miss lotlizard. She is much more capable to evaluate the speeches and quotes. I hope lotlizard is in good health and spirit and if you know about her whereabouts, let her know that I send my best wishes to her.
Comments
I found this english discussion...
of his speech on Thursday about Turkey -
http://www.dw.com/en/threaten-one-mp-and-youre-attacking-the-whole-parli...
But I don't think that's the speech you reference.
Hope all is well in your part of the world. Spring is arriving a month early here in the south....daffodils, quince, pears, and apples starting to bloom...likely to be bit by a frost.
“Until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream.”
no, that's another speech
I watched his speech live today around 6 am EST I believe. There is just not yet English language reporting about it. And it's understandable. It's not that important to foreigners outside Germany. The Germans themselves don't pay much attention to it either. I was just amazed that many of the 'identity political' issues were talked about and I started to think about Al and his view points of direct elections. During the broadcast it came up often, and it just confirmed to me the slogan, that Germans do everything like the Americans with a delay. I just learn a little about German politicians. My feeling is that other than the Green and die Linke and the right-wing Afd, everybody is strongly supporting EU unity. Having been 35 years outside of Germany, you just don't get enough of news in a format that helps to understand what's the 'atmoshpere' in Germany. And I always regret that so few broadcasts are available in English.
I might just redact this later on, if I don't find something in English.
https://www.euronews.com/
Guten Tag, Mimi! :-)
Hope I spelled it right. This is a bit off topic, but the main parent language of English is your tongue, German. Take a look at Beowulf written in Old English. I have always admired people who are multi-lingual. That's a big bitch I have with being an American. We already could speak the "exceptional" language, so why bother learning others? Bullfrigginhockey!!! I follow your comments cos I have always found Germany a fascinating country. Rec'd!!
Inner and Outer Space: the Final Frontiers.
You want me to look at something written in Old English?
heh, only if you look at something written in
"Plattdeutsch" (Low German) . ...
ahem, zum Weglaufen
I don't understand a word, just saying.
https://www.euronews.com/
Strictly speaking, English and German are half-sisters,
and English is the illegitimate one (Norman-French father).
Old English (Anglo-Saxon) developed from a Frisian dialect of Old German, which puts it closer to Dutch. Then the Normans came over and made everybody who was anybody speak Norman-French for a couple of centuries, until the native dialect got sufficiently Frenchified and clawed its way back up the social tree. (Middle English, aka "what Chaucer spoke").
Having been destabilized, the language continued to mutate (and to grab words from any and every other available language) until the pronunciation, if not the vocabulary, became recognizable to us ("what Shakespeare spoke").
English is still the most aggressively acquisitive language on the planet, having heavily absorbed its closest competitor (Yiddish).
(I understand that the evolution of modern German is not that straightforward, but I defer to the experts here.)
There is no justice. There can be no peace.
I am always happy to learn from you guys here
I feel like a 'schmarotzer' (ie parasitic), who gives nothing and takes a lot.
I learned that Yiddish is close to German, when I met for the first time two Jewish elderly ladies, one of which was an Auschwitz survivor, in a MacDonalds in Maryland and heard them speak. You know I had never the chance to meet any Jewish person in my life in Germany and realized that only when I went to the US a while later on. It should have puzzled me way back in Germany already, but didn't. Shame on us 'kids' of the Nazis.
Your comment made me wonder, why "English is the illegitimate one (Norman-French father)." Made me laugh. If I were french I would feel 'offended'.
There are no illegitimate children anymore these days. Well, at least in theory.
Thanks for your comment.
https://www.euronews.com/
I know nothing about German politics,
but I would like to visit Bavaria sometime and see the Rossfeldrennen. It's a hillclimb, a bergrennen, with old-timer classic cars. Here's a video of my favorite German ever, Walter Röhrl, driving the Porsche W-RS Spyder. Röhr is such a great driver that Porsche+Audi let him drive these one-of-a-kind museum pieces. The W-RS Spyder, chassis #718-047, is known as the Grossmutter. It was fitted with the Type 771 2-liter flat-eight engine and won its class at Le Mans in 1963.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f6MjPKY07Uc width:500 height:300]
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
you are THE fan...
they sure make a lot of noise...like some Germans in the Kneipe, when they are drunk... Come on over one day and enjoy yourself. But take a German English speaker with you.
Now I try to imagine what kind of car you have in YOUR garage?
https://www.euronews.com/
@mimi
Our car is not a race car and it's not German. We have a Jeep. Sometimes we like to go places where the roads aren't so good.
We have only one bergrennen in the US, at Pike's Peak in Colorado. Walter Röhrl won it in 1987 driving an Audi.
[video:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ljHZO-bSGZM width:500 height:300]
We wanted decent healthcare, a living wage and free college.
The Democrats gave us Biden and war instead.
great Jeep,
we have a Ford Pick-Up, the smallest one, year 2005. I don't buy German cars in the US. I like Ford, as you can get repairs everywhere. Had something like a Mitsubishi SUV years ago. Was a mess, it took for ever in the middle of Montana to get repairs done.
https://www.euronews.com/
Just for the fun of it - another GOS
we had a GOS among our electors and I throught that Merkel was really nice in the way she talked to her. I saw that in the live broadcast and was quite enchanted with Merkel and with Olivia Jones. I mean the Great Orange Satan is nothing compared to her, no?
Her name is Olivia Jones and she was invited by the Green Party as elector. Here is a bit about her:
Olivia Jones: The German drag queen who wants to be president
https://www.euronews.com/
A little off topic, but what do you think of Martin Schulz?
More in terms of policy than electability? If Merkel loses, it would be nice to see a true lefty replace her, but I don't know if Schulz qualifies.
I don't know either
if Mr. Schulz qualifies as a lefty. Heh, I am just back here since two and 1/2 month and still learn to recognize our homegrown politicians here. The only thing I can say about my little observations here are that even the so-called German lefties and greenies seem to be hesitant to discard EU's 'so-called' unity. I don't think there are many Germans (asided from the right-wingers) who see something useful or really justified to give up European efforts to stay united.
But that's all my guts tell me. I am still learning .... and quite frankly... I am getting more and more tired of learning all that ... you know what.
https://www.euronews.com/
That's just hilarious! A
That's just hilarious! A relative of mine wound up in Aurich (Ostfriesland) after the war. Do they speak Platt there? I can see the similarities to Nederlands and I wonder if Platt may not have picked up Nederlands influences.
There are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don't know we don't know.
no idea, tapu dali, who picked up from whom
very few people speak still Plattdeutsch. And yes, I think they did speak it in Ost Friesland. See the link above. The Wikipedia folks got into that deeply.
All I know is that when I was a youngster we had something like a local comedian-style of theater in Hamburg and they did 'comedy' in Plattdeutsch and it was really awful. We had other political oriented comedians back then, thank God. But no, not Hamburgish, North German Plattdeutsch style. I miss watching US comedians on TV here. The video clips of their broadcasts can't be accessed often from Germany and it ... me off.
https://www.euronews.com/