hello folks. So once again we're see sitting here in front of the window looking out this morning at fog. trees starting to slowly bloom. sure it does seem like spring is here, even though it feels a little bit early. But in the news, we have some problems.But let me not start with the news first. Let me start with what happened over the last few days. I was meeting with some acquaintances that I know throughout the town.Now these meetings weren't planned at all. They were very spontaneous.What was interesting about meeting these people is the discussion with each of them was ironically leaning towards the same subjects, and the same subjects are the price of electricity, the price of gasoline, the price of food, and other utilities.Unfortunately, the utility price is affecting the other items. And right now, Germany is doing something very, very unusual, which a lot of other countries that are outside the European Union don't know about, like the United States.So I'll explain here as quickly as I can. The European Union belongs to NATO. The leader of NATO is the United States. The issue with NATO is historically involving all of Europe and Russia. And the concern is about who's going to make any move in one direction or the other. And the fight right now, presently, is about what p people in Germany call the Ukraine. And it first was about Ukraine without the word the in there. Why they added that, I don't know. It doesn't technically make sense in in a sentence, but they talk about the Ukraine. And the mainstream media leaves out a lot.What they're leaving out here is critical because they don't talk about the loss of people due to the war in Ukraine. They only talk about the how much Ukraine has caused damage to Russia. They are very, very biased. that's a problem because then the truth doesn't get really told. And the truth is not about the military issue in Ukraine, it's what is happening to the people in Ukraine. And I'm not talking about during the war, I'm talking about for a long time, the financial system, the medical system, the military system involved with people, the nefarious issues that are going on. These things are not reported ever. It's only reporting about the one guy, the president of the of the Ukraine and what he is doing, and they're painting him out to be this making him look like an average guy who's saying I'm trying to work with the United States or I'm trying to work with Europe, but Russia keeps changing things. Well, they're hiding or not allowing the real information to come out at all. So most people because they are listening to the mainstream media believe that what's happening is what they see. And unfortunately, here in Germany, there's a heck of a lot more truth being released, but it's not through the mainstream media.Most people are now getting their truth through other platforms. Now the ironic twist of this is that the government in Germany is claiming that many of these platforms are giving misinformation, but yet the government itself creates misinformation, and then they try to pass it off as the truth and the media protects that. It's really a twisted situation of truths versus half truths. So the end result is that the cost of the energy that was coming from Russia in natural gas and other energy for th things was going to Germany and many other countries, and it was very cheap. It was a great deal. The cost of energy in Germany was affordable. People didn't have a problem going out for a nice evening on the town, going to the movie theater, going to dinner, going shopping for whatever they want. That's changing because once the Ukraine started, the flow of this energy was all of a sudden decided to to be stopped, or at least a majority of it stopped. Why? Because they said it's too risky to be supporting an enemy, something that was decided that it was an enemy because Russia theoretically or supposedly attacked Ukraine. Well, what's the truth behind that? Nobody's wanting to know the history, they just want to know they did it. That doesn't help. How did it start? What is the history? The mainstream media refuses to talk about that. So the end result is the cheaper fuel, the natural liquid natural gas that has been coming through has now been majorly shut off. The politicians are forcing that. The people are now paying for fuel from places that are farther away and from the United States, which costs a lot of money to have it shipped over. A lot more money than what we were paying before. So the price of fuel for all Germans has shot up so badly. We're talking now, if I'm not mistaken, where don't quote me on this, but we might be talking a hundred and fifty percent increase in prices. You know, it in in the middle of winter, you want to talk about when we need this the most! So for some reason the politicians are not backing down, and they're not changing their mind. They're following the United States and the negotiations for the United States to make profit off of Europe. Well, boy, they're making a profit, and the expense is actually hurting all of Germany and other countries terribly. It really is. In fact, many companies inside of Germany, big companies, billion dollar companies, trillion dollar companies, are starting to shut down or relocate to other countries, and they're not stopping the policy. So right now, would I say that the United States is becoming an enemy to Germany? No. What I would say is that Europe is deciding to fight something that no matter what the damage is to their own country, the fight and the war is more important. Which basically means it's ideological suicide. And that's what I would call terrible, terrible behavior. And that brings me back to what I was talking about with the friends that I was meeting with or acquaintances, not friends, acquaintances that I was meeting with yesterday. And even before throughout the last week or two, they are all very nervous and they're all reconsidering whether or not they're gonna stay in Germany.Because of the prices that people are now paying at the gas pump for food, for a new car, for taxes, for heating their house, the cost of everything is going so high, people are no longer pa paying for luxury, even the people who are making a lot of money are starting to cut back. There, there's places that people may go to take their kids on the weekend to have fun with. No, they're starting to slow that down. A lot of companies are feeling this badly. Is it equal to a recession or worse, a depression? I wouldn't say depression yet, but you might say that is starting to show signs that that is gonna happen unless they put a full stop to this within a year or less. But the word from a lot of people, which is not substantiated, but the word is they fear it is going to happen.So right now Germany is in conflict. Are they at war? Indirectly. They can't declare war because this is a proxy fight between Russia and Europe, and they're using Ukraine or the Ukraine as the proxy to fight the war. They're trying to protect the Ukraine, even though NATO tried to move in and say Ukraine, you can become one of the NATO members. But the problem is that the European Union, which is a different contract, which is not part of the United States, can not accept Ukraine to be in the European Union because there's certain rules that have to be abided by. So the bottom line here is those behaviors are against the European Union. And it also happens to be a part of NATO, which NATO wants to bring them in, but it can't. So it's a double edged sword that Germany, Poland, and Czechoslovakia, which I believe is just below Poland, is part of, and they can't agree to let them in because of the conflict. Not only the conflict within the Ukraine, but the conflict between European Union and Ukraine. It's a very twisted situation, but it's all politics. So Germany is in a major problem, right? This right this very day. And a lot of people that I've talked to said because of what's happening to their pocketbooks, they are seriously thinking about where to move to. They haven't actually made the decision, but they're seriously considering it because it is so uncomfortable and it's been ongoing for over a year.There is one thing that is very curious that is happening here, and that is giving some people hope, but they're still very confused, and that is about what's called the AFD. The AFD is the an alternative base, what you call for people who are a sect of the government, such as what in the United States you'd call the democrats and republicans, the AFD is a different section, and they seem to be more in favor of human rights, where the other sides feel that the AFD is a right wing group, and I'm not even too sure what the hell right versus left actually means, but nonetheless, people are starting to take comfort that this AFD, if they get voted into office, may be able to help Germany get out of this political suicide that's going on with the covert current government. So and the leader of the AFD is called Alice Weidel, and a lot of people seem to like her. Whether or not the AFD would actually succeed if they were to come into power and make Germany healthier and better again is very concerning whether or not it could succeed because the other groups that are in the government are saying they don't want the AFD in there and they would not work with them. So it's as if they're saying, yes, the AFD has won through votes and they're trying to make things happen, but they're being blocked. Kind of like what Trump did when he went into his first term as president. They blocked him from doing all kinds of things. Whether or not they was things were good or bad, I don't know, but he had a very, very hard time. So if the AFD comes into power, that's where the hope is, but is that hope hopium, or is it just false hope? That's the part that's the big question. So I thought I'd interject that and make sure you folks know that there is something going on positive, at least they hope. Once again, thanks for reading into this blog and hopefully this gives some entertainment to somebody else out there in the world. And I will continue to post more blogs about life in Germany.