Germany's once-mighty car industry is
in crisis. What will it take to fix it?
Posted By: snakeoil, 2/11/2025 10:31:47 PM
For decades, car-making has been the jewel in Germany's industrial crown, a powerful symbol of the country's famous post-war economic miracle. Its "Big Three" brands, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW, have long been praised for their performance, innovation and precision engineering. But today, the German motor industry is struggling. How can it get back on the road to recovery? When you arrive by train in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, the first thing you see is the Volkswagen factory. Its huge facade, emblazoned with a giant VW logo and flanked by four tall chimneys, dominates one bank of the canal that runs through the city.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
people like this.
Below, you will find ...
Most Recent Articles posted by "snakeoil"
and
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
Most Recent Articles posted by
snakeoil"
Muhsin Hendricks, a pioneering figure dubbed the world's first openly gay imam, has been shot dead in South Africa. The 57-year-old cleric ran a mosque in Cape Town intended as a safe haven for gay and other marginalised Muslims. He was killed on Saturday morning after the car in which he was travelling near the southern city of Gqeberha was ambushed. "Two unknown suspects with covered faces got out of the vehicle and started firing multiple shots at the vehicle," police said in a statement.
Tom Homan Reminds AOC He Once Had To ‘Educate
Her’ About Basic Border Law As Two Publicly Beef 10 replies
Her’ About Basic Border Law As Two Publicly Beef 10 replies
Border czar Tom Homan recalled Sunday on Fox News how he had to educate Democratic New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez about the inner workings of border law after her recent public pushback telling him to “learn to read” the Constitution. In 2019, Homan stopped Ocasio-Cortez’s attack against him during a congressional hearing, where he had to inform her that border laws mirrored U.S. laws when discussing family separation. On “Sunday Morning Futures with Maria Bartiromo,” the Fox News host asked Homan for his response to Ocasio-Cortez, who had recently posted on X, stating Homan should “learn to read” and start with the Constitution ...
The strategist who ran former Vice President Kamala Harris’ 2024 campaign appears to have a new foreign lobbying gig, according to documents filed under the Foreign Agents Registration Act (FARA). David Plouffe, a former senior political adviser to Barack Obama who was brought on as a senior adviser to Harris, registered on Feb. 9 to be a consultant with Precision Strategies, LLC. to work with an Indonesian group, according to the FARA documents. The group title, per the documents, is Yayasan Berbakti Semangat Indonesia.
Former Republican House Speaker Newt Gingrich told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow Thursday that “there’s a lot at stake” if the Republicans lose the House in the 2026 midterm elections to the Democrats. In an appearance on “Kudlow,” Gingrich predicted a bleak scenario for the Republican Party if they fail to retain control of the House in the 2026 elections. Gingrich said there’s a need for a robust economic agenda to secure a Republican victory and prevent potential legislative setbacks under a Democrat-led House.
Breaking: Crockett the Rocket, a meteoric rising star in the Democratic Party, has just unseated AOC as the leader of the Imbecile Caucus. For those unfamiliar, the Imbecile Caucus is comprised of some of the smartest lawmakers in Washington, D.C. — the movers and the swamp shakers, a brain trust of politicians who split atoms in other lifetimes — and includes not only Democrats but several Republicans, such as Israel Rep. Don Bacon and Israel Rep. Brian Mast.
Like a flock of aggressive but brainless seagulls at the Jersey Shore, they all began screeching in unison: constitutional crisis, constitutional crisis, ... constitutional Crisis. It’s always a crisis with President Donald Trump. The president could post on Truth Social at 2 a.m. calling Elizabeth Warren “Pocahontas,” and hours later, the cable news channels will have brought on a Native American who runs a casino in North Dakota to riff on the racism crisis crippling America. Better yet, they will have brought on the race-hustling reverend, Al Sharpton.
For decades, car-making has been the jewel in Germany's industrial crown, a powerful symbol of the country's famous post-war economic miracle. Its "Big Three" brands, Volkswagen, Mercedes-Benz, and BMW, have long been praised for their performance, innovation and precision engineering. But today, the German motor industry is struggling. How can it get back on the road to recovery? When you arrive by train in Wolfsburg, Lower Saxony, the first thing you see is the Volkswagen factory. Its huge facade, emblazoned with a giant VW logo and flanked by four tall chimneys, dominates one bank of the canal that runs through the city.
Former CBS News anchor Katie Couric decried the Pentagon’s decision to give office space to conservative outlets, saying the move will lead to “propaganda.” Her assertion ignores her own checkered history with the truth. Responding to a report that the Pentagon would be rotating out legacy media from building offices in favor of conservative outlets, Couric said “Wow. This is how news becomes propaganda. It’s begun.
America has gone through three revolutions: the American Revolution, the American Civil War and now the Revolution to Restore America. We are living in historic times. The Democrat Party is in shambles. They have no message except Trump is bad. Their support of bureaucracy, big government, immorality, and corruption has been unrelenting. The damage to the Democratic Party is so severe that it may never recover. It happened before.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told Reuters on Friday that he hopes to make a deal with President Donald Trump to bring an end to the war with Russia. During his campaign for office, Trump vowed to bring peace to the world, as multiple foreign wars had been pushed during the Biden-Harris administration. In an interview with Reuters, Zelenskyy said he was open to making a deal with the U.S. regarding Trump’s request for Ukraine to supply the U.S. with rare earths and other minerals in exchange for continued financial aid.
The Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania are now unplugged from Russia's electricity grid and have joined the European Union's network. Plans for the move - which have been in the works since 2007 - were seen as essential for European security and had been brought brought forward after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. "Today, history is made," EU chief Ursula von der Leyen told a ceremony in Lithuania's capital. "This is freedom, freedom from threats, freedom from blackmail."
Canada's outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has told a group of business leaders he believes President Donald Trump might be serious about annexing his country. Trudeau suggested Trump has floated the idea of taking over Canada and making it the "51st state" because he wants to access the country's critical minerals. "Mr Trump has it in mind that the easiest way to do it is absorbing our country and it is a real thing," the prime minister said.
Most Active Articles (last 48 hours)
President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine, during a closed-door meeting on Wednesday, rejected an offer by the Trump administration to relinquish half of the country’s mineral resources in exchange for U.S. support, according to five people briefed on the proposal or with direct knowledge of the talks.
The unusual deal would have granted the United States a 50 percent interest in all of Ukraine’s mineral resources, including graphite, lithium and uranium, as compensation for past and future support in Kyiv’s war effort against Russian invaders, according to two European officials. A Ukrainian official and an energy expert briefed on the proposal said that the Trump administration also sought Ukrainian energy resources.
Rubio defends Vance's Munich speech as
CBS host suggests 'free speech' caused
the Holocaust 26 replies
CBS host suggests 'free speech' caused
the Holocaust 26 replies
Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended Vice President JD Vance's speech in Germany slamming Europe's penchant for censorship on Sunday. Rubio clashed with CBS host Margaret Brennan on "Face the Nation" after she suggested that free speech had been "weaponized" to bring about the Holocaust in Nazi Germany.
Brennan highlighted Vance's speech to the Munich Security Conference in Germany last week, which criticized European allies for adopting a "soviet"-style approach to censorship.
Canadian hockey fans booed “The Star-Spangled Banner” — setting off a brawl-filled game that ended with a US win Saturday night.
The game of the NHL-run 4 Nations Face-Off tournament could have been mistaken for a boxing event — with three fist fights breaking out between American and Canadian players following the widespread booing of the US national anthem by over 20,000 angry fans.
As soon as the singer, Royal Canadian Air Force member David Grenon, began belting, “Oh, say, can you see,” the crowd at the Bell Centre in Montreal let out an aggressive and booming chorus of boos that nearly drowned out the anthem entirely.
Rachel Maddow Criticizes Trump, Musk Over
$400M Tesla Contract—But It Was Under
Biden's Watch 18 replies
$400M Tesla Contract—But It Was Under
Biden's Watch 18 replies
MSNBC host Rachel Maddow has once again found herself in hot water after making false claims about President Donald Trump giving Elon Musk a $400 million contract to buy armored Teslas. The liberal pundit, known for her questionable takes and liberal meltdowns, fabricated this narrative despite no evidence to back up the allegation. This latest misstep only adds to the growing list of inaccuracies from Maddow and other left-wing media figures attempting to distort the truth to discredit Trump and Musk.
When reviewing the production, it is important to remember – when Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to an assembly in English, his audience is not in the room in Munich. Zelenskyy is speaking to America, through the scripted remarks.
When Zelenskyy is scripted to speak to Europe, he speaks Ukrainian. When Zelenskyy is scripted to speak to America, he speaks English. .(snip)Acting as if he were a NATO member, he’s not, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy tells the European audience they need to plan for the U.S. to pull-back from NATO, and the European Union needs to assemble a collective “European Army.” (snip)., can send their soldiers into Ukraine to join the fight
Well, this is interesting. What a surprise. Dirty Judge Jack McConnell, who believes he was recently elected US president, halted President Trump’s current spending freeze. But Judge McConnell is not some innocent bystander. Judge McConnell’s organization has received $117.6 million in government funding in total (ending in 2023). Maybe that’s why he wanted the money to keep flowing. He’s expecting several more million this year!
Not Many Americans Are Going to Tolerate
What These Federal Workers Had to Say
Last Night 14 replies
What These Federal Workers Had to Say
Last Night 14 replies
CBS News was a dumpster fire on Sunday. Face the Nation’s Margaret Brennan thought the Nazi Holocaust occurred because there was too much freedom of speech and the press in Germany. Then, 60 Minutes decided to produce a segment about Germany waging a total war on freedom of speech, taking offenders away…on a train ride. Finally, there is this pity segment on government workers who are lost after getting fired.
The Trump-is-Hitler crowd dismisses the 77 million Americans who elected Donald Trump to the Presidency, for the second time, as a cult.
They aren’t suggesting that these 77 million people are a cult because they were opposed to another four years of Joe Biden’s drooling corruption. Rather, they’re suggesting that these people are card-carrying, Kool Aid-drinking Trump worshippers.
Let’s put this in context. One of the defining characteristics of cults is that they idolize a charismatic, authoritarian leader. Such leaders get away with a lot.
New Jersey bans safe, effective ammunition
13 replies
Among the things at once hilarious and alarming to those who understand and support the Bill of Rights—all of it—are the efforts of anti-liberty/gun cracktivists. This includes not only the operatives of anti-gun groups whose normal discourse is shot full of inaccuracies and lies, but the Democrat/socialist/communist (D/s/c) media who usually haven’t a clue of the science and reality of guns, ballistics and every related topic. That doesn’t stop them from grotesquely and purposely misinforming the public on those issues.
Every year at my home blog I update an article that illustrates the point. Years ago a reporter, one Gersh Kuntzman, wrote of the horrors of firing the most
Week Four: No Rest for the Grifters
13 replies
In the 1960s when my husband and I first worked in Washington, D.C., according to the Office of Personnel Management, there were about 1,808,000 (which includes military; non-Department of Defense was 761,000) federal employees. At the start of President Trump’s second term there were 2.3 million, of which about 775,000 were military and Department of Defense employees. This astonishing bloat in the federal bureaucracy is even more inexplicable when you consider that in this same period so many of the jobs being performed by these people have been made strikingly more efficient with the creation and improvement of computers and the internet, requiring fewer personnel to accomplish more.
CNN’s Kaitlan Collins deletes post promoting
Luigi Mangione’s defense fund after backlash 13 replies
Luigi Mangione’s defense fund after backlash 13 replies
CNN chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins apparently deleted a social media post after receiving backlash for appearing to promote a defense fund for Luigi Mangione, the alleged UnitedHealthcare CEO killer.
In the post on X, Collins showed a link to a new website launched by defense lawyers for Mangione, who faces charges of first-degree murder in furtherance of an act of terrorism, stalking and other state and federal charges in New York and Pennsylvania for allegedly gunning down UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson in Manhattan on Dec. 4, 2024.
Thompson was a married father of two.
Democrats have cast the Trump administration’s ouster of eight senior FBI leaders as a “purge” and act of “retribution” from a weaponized Justice Department, some likening it to President Nixon’s “Saturday Night Massacre.”
But former colleagues of the terminated “G-men” say this narrative is backward. FBI officials, past and present, have marshaled significant evidence via whistleblower complaints and testimony indicating that several terminated leaders routinely used their offices for partisan purposes.
These include allegations that at least two of the fired officials, Jeffrey Veltri and Dena Perkins, manipulated the security clearance review process to personally and professionally punish conservatives, COVID-19 vaccine skeptics, and Jan. 6 whistleblowers who reported suspected bureau malfeasance,
Comments:
Decades ago the VW Bug was cheap and reliable. Today's cars are full of microprocessors which are a mixed blessing.