The Chumph’s International Disasters

Really bad trip for the Chumph overseas.

Gotta love the part about taking away folks Mercedes, Audis, and BMWs…That may play with the base, but upscale Soccer Moms are going to raise hell.

 

US Knew of Holocaust For Two Years…And Did Nothing

One of the enduring questions of WWII is that the Holocaust had been going on for years…How did the Allies not know?

The answer is they did know…And did little to nothing to stop it.

Allied forces knew about Holocaust two years before discovery of concentration camps, secret documents reveal

Archive shows Adolf Hitler was indicted for war crimes in 1944

The Allied Powers were aware of the scale of the Jewish Holocaust two-and-a-half years earlier than is generally assumed, and had even prepared war crimes indictments against Adolf Hitler and his top Nazi commanders.

Newly accessed material from the United Nations – not seen for around 70 years – shows that as early as December 1942, the US, UK and Soviet governments were aware that at least two million Jews had been murdered and a further five million were at risk of being killed, and were preparing charges. Despite this, the Allied Powers did very little to try and rescue or provide sanctuary to those in mortal danger.

Indeed, in March 1943, Viscount Cranborne, a minister in the war cabinet of Winston Churchill, said the Jews should not be considered a special case and that the British Empire was already too full of refugees to offer a safe haven to any more.

Several countries indicted Hitler and other senior Nazi leaders for war crimes (UNWCC)

“The major powers commented [on the mass murder of Jews] two-and-a-half years before it is generally assumed,” Dan Plesch, author of the newly published Human Rights After Hitler, told The Independent.

“It was assumed they learned this when they discovered the concentration camps, but they made this public comment in December 1942.”

Mr Plesch, a professor at the Centre for International Studies and Diplomacy at SOAS University of London, said the major powers began drawing up war crimes charges based on witness testimony smuggled from the camps and from the resistance movements in various countries occupied by the Nazis. Among his discoveries were documents indicting Hitler for war crimes dating from 1944.

In late December 1942, after the US, UK and others issued a public declaration about the Jewish slaughter, UK Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden told the British parliament: “The German authorities, not content with denying to persons of Jewish race in all the territories over which their barbarous rule extends, the most elementary human rights, are now carrying into effect Hitler’s oft-repeated intention to exterminate the Jewish people.”

Mr Plesch said that despite the collection of evidence and the prosecution of hundreds of Nazis – a judicial process that has been overshadowed by the trial of the Nazi leadership at Nuremberg – the Allied Powers did little to try and help those in peril. He said efforts by President Franklin D Roosevelt’s envoy to the United Nations War Crimes Commission (UNWCC), Herbert Pell, were pushed back by anti-semites in the US State Department.

Mr Pell would later claim that individuals within the State Department were concerned that America’s economic relationship with Germany after the war would be damaged if such prosecutions went ahead. After Mr Pell went public with the scandal, the State Department agreed to the prosecution of the Nazi leadership at Nuremberg, something that gathered pace after the highly publicised liberation of the concentration camps in the summer of 1945.

“Among the reason given by the US and British policy makers for curtailing prosecutions of Nazis was the understanding that at least some of them would be needed to rebuild Germany and confront Communism, which at the time was seen as a greater danger,” writes Mr Plesch…More Here…

 

US Sends Tanks To Germany to Protect Against Russian Invasion

If you don’t think Putin’s b*tch has been committing Treason and that the Russians aren’t still our enemies – you might want to take a look at this,

For 1st time since Cold War, U.S. tanks roll into Russia’s backyard

Since the end of the Cold War, the U.S. has been drawing down its military presence in Europe. But at the main docks in Bremerhaven, in northern Germany, that’s no longer the case. In fact, CBS News correspondent Elizabeth Palmer reports, quite the reverse is the order of the day.

All the massive hardware of a U.S. combat brigade arrived in Germany over the weekend, and started rolling east toward Poland, where 4,000 American soldiers will be waiting for it.

It is the first build-up of American troops and weapons in Europe in almost 30 years, and as Palmer reports, the impressive display of military might is meant, in large part, to reassure America’s nervous allies in Europe that the U.S. military will be there, standing with them, against any Russian aggression.

Aggression, and land grabs, like the 2014 invasion of Crimea, when Russian troops landed in what had been Ukraine and seized the ground for the Kremlin.

America’s response, manifested with the new deployment, has been to increase both its own force in Europe, and its support of NATO.

However, incoming U.S. President Donald Trump has suggested NATO is obsolete, and said he wants to restore good relations with Russia.

Palmer asked Major General Timothy McGuire how quickly the new president could, as a gesture of good will towards Russia, turn the whole deployment to eastern Europe around and pull them out.

“I’m not going to speculate on what the incoming president may or may not do, but I will tell you this is in the interests of the United States Army, to build readiness,” McGuire replied.

The new commander-in-chief could reverse it all, of course, but Palmer says that would take months, or even years.

Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin has already indicated that he views the American build-up as pointless.

It’s “stupid and unrealistic,” he said, to think that Russia would attack anyone. But the American military and its NATO allies believe a little extra deterrence won’t hurt.

Once all the troops and equipment of the combat brigade reach their final destinations, at various places in eastern Europe, they will start a series of big multinational exercises with other NATO armies.

The Kremlin said Monday that discussions would begin with Mr. Trump’s administration after his inauguration to determine a time for his first meeting with Putin.

The seat of Russian power also said it was looking forward to putting the current period of tension behind it, suggesting Mr. Trump would usher in “more sober experts.”

 

Best Selling Performance Car in Germany? … Ford Mustang 350 Shelby!

Beating out the locally built Porsche 911!

Ford Mustang – Germany’s favorite sports car

In Germany, the land of the Autobahn, where speed is regarded as a national right, the best-selling sports car last month wasn’t the locally-built Porsche 911. It was the Ford Mustang.

The Mustang, built in Flat Rock, Mich., is still a novelty in Europe, where it went on sale for the first time last summer. During the Mustang’s most recent redesign for the 2015 model year, Ford executives decided they wanted to make it a global product. Before, it had been sold mainly in the United States. Even so, thanks to the popularity of American television shows and movies overseas, the car is well known in other countries. European customers just hadn’t been able to easily buy one before.

The Mustang is relatively expensive in Germany compared to the United States. Prices for a four-cylinder turbocharged model there start at about €38,000, or roughly $43,000. Prices for that model in the U.S. start at less than $26,000. Prices for the powerful, V8 Ford GT start at the equivalent of almost $50,000, while the car costs about $32,000 in the U.S. (Car prices in Germany are quoted with taxes and fees included, which is not the case in the U.S.)

Despite the higher price, the GT is, by far, the most popular version of the car in Germany, according to Ford (F).

 

German Soccer Team Dons Blackface to Fight Racism

Different country, different rules. An act which undoubtedly would be considered abhorrent in America, sends quite a different message in Germany.

German Soccer Team Posts Blackface Photo To Fight Racism

“We just wanted to show solidarity.”

A German soccer club took a stand against an apparently racist attack on two of its black players by going blackface in a team picture.

Deinster SV, an amateur team, posted the digitally altered photo on its Facebook page, along with a description of what happened to two Sudanese refugee teammates during an Easter celebration.

The coach said the attack took place last week in the team’s hometown of Deinster in northern Germany. He said one player, Emad Babiker, was physically assaulted and the other, Amar Alnoor, was verbally assaulted.

“Emad was thrown to the ground. They struck and kicked him. When I saw him on Sunday, he had a big swelling under his eye,” coach Sönke Kreibich told Jezt.de. Police were reportedly investigating the incident.

“Violence against refugees is pathetic,” the Facebook post reads. “Emad and Amar, you are one of us.”

The team’s starkly visual stand has been largely well-received and shared thousands of times. “This has nothing to do with racism. We just wanted to show solidarity,” team spokesman Frank Sandmann told NBC News.

The positive response might seem surprising, as blackface has long been used toperpetuate damaging stereotypes and make racist mockery of people of African descent. White people donning makeup to appear black is widely seen as offensive in the United States.

Germans, however, do not have the same view on blackface, generally speaking. It remains a popular part of the Karneval celebration, which has a tradition of costumes and mockery.

European soccer, too, has long been dogged by acts of racism, but the continent’s problem doesn’t end there. Amid fears of terrorism, the refugee crisis and rising right-wing nationalist movements, acts of racism have been on the rise in Europe, drawing international concern.

 

Leaving America

If you have a chance to travel to Europe, check out the local TV. The Ads, particularly on British TV are 10 cuts above most of what you will see in America. This is the new British Stansbury Christmas Ad which is making waves felt in the US already – If you are a cat owner, you probably will recognize a little of Mog in your own cat.

Department Store John Lewis is known for some of the best ads annually. This certainly beats the hell out of the jingle driven drivel presented on US TV –

This one from the Lottery company in Spain. It engages the watcher by telling a story in one minute –

And this from German Grocer LIDL and it’s “Christmas Class”

Apparently, the concept of grabbing the audience with quality over quantity sailed over our advertiser’s heads. As advertisers on cable now chew up 20 minutes of an hour program – maybe these clowns could learn something about why folks are increasingly buying ad blockers and watch commercial free on the Internet. Familiarity, in terms of ceaselessly being bombarded with the same poorly constructed information indeed breeds contempt.

 

Pinot Bandits Strike German Vineyard

Seems that someone in Germany is stealing the grapes right off the vine at premiere German Vineyards. The Pinot Bandits are so brazen they even bring their own grape picking machines as they strip top quality grapes in the middle of the night…

Now that’s cold!

Thieves Bag Premium Wine Grapes Overnight

They were supposed to be turned into a premium red wine, but grapes at a southwestern German vineyard disappeared overnight just ahead of the scheduled harvest. Thieves are believed to have plucked some 2,500 kilograms (5,500 pounds) of the high-quality fruit from the vine under the cover of night, Deidesheim winegrower Stephen Attmann said Tuesday.

“We are suffering spiritually, not just financially, over this loss,” Attmann told news agency DPA.

The grape grabbers were so bold they even brought in a harvest machine to the Von Winning vineyard to remove the Spätburgunder variety, also known as Pinot Noir, estimated to be worth some €100,000 ($137,000).

Bottles of the award-winning wine cost some €32 ($44). In May, German President Christian Wulff and 180 diplomats visited the celebrated vineyard for a tasting.

Professionals At Work

The theft was likely an act of desperation, said Ernst Büscher, spokesperson for The German Wine Institute (DWF). “There were professionals at work, probably a winegrower whose grapes were destroyed by frost or hail,” he said.

Wine theft has become increasingly common, though perpetrators are rarely caught, he added. But in this case there is cause for hope. Though no one was likely alarmed by the sight of the machines rattling through the night — often an optimal time for harvest — they left tracks behind.

While police continue to investigate the incident, winemaker Attmann said he would wait until “somewhere a super wine is produced by a winemaker who is otherwise not known for such high quality.”

 

The “Snatch Man” Cometh… For a 737!

In Cable TV’s never-ending search for content, there are “Reality shows” about dozens of occupations…

Including several about “Snatch Men” – the guys who repossess cars, vehicles, and even homes on the behalf of creditors who haven’t been paid.

Being a “Crown Prince” in some countries is a pretty good gig. You are guaranteed income to be supported the rest of your life in high style…

For no other reason than coming out of the right womb.

So you can imagine the frustration of this Crown Prince, flying in on his private 737 jet to Germany, possibly for a few brews and Frauleins…

To have to take the proverbial “Greyhound Bus” home.

So...How do you get this bad boy up on the truck?

Thais refuse German deal on Prince Vajiralongkorn’s jet

Thailand has ruled out paying Germany a bank bond of 20m euros ($28m; £17m) to secure the release of a plane seized from Thai Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn.

The Boeing 737 was impounded at Munich airport last week in a bid to force payment of a 30m-euro debt owed by the Thai government to a German firm.

Thai officials say the jet belongs to the crown prince, not the government.

But judges ruled that documentation was inconclusive, and said the jet would be released only when a payment was made.

 

Attack of the Radioactive Swine! German Hogzilla!

Fans of the 50’s and 60’s American and Japanese Horror movies will remember the radioactive monsters such as Godzilla and Mothra wreaking havoc across the movie screen.

Mothra vs. Godzilla

Well…. It seems that Germany has been invaded…

By radioactive pigs.

That’s right… Radioactive Pigs.

HOGZILLA!

Radioactive Boar on the Rise in Germany

It’s no secret that Germany has a wild boar problem. Stories of marauding pigs hit the headlines with startling regularity: Ten days ago, a wild boar attacked a wheelchair-bound man in a park in Berlin; in early July, a pack of almost two dozen of the animals repeatedly marched into the eastern German town of Eisenach, frightening residents and keeping police busy; and on Friday morning, a German highway was closed for hours after 10 wild boar broke through a fence and waltzed onto the road.

Even worse, though, almost a quarter century after the Chernobyl nuclear meltdown in Ukraine, a good chunk of Germany’s wild boar population remains slightly radioactive — and the phenomenon has been costing the German government an increasing amount of money in recent years.

 

A Little Dab Will Do Ya’!

Sometimes the thinking if little bit is good, more is better doesn’t quite work out as this group of would be Bank Robbers found out the hard way!

German Robbers Blew Up the Bank... And Left the Cash Machine Intact

German bank ‘blown up by robbers in botched raid’

Suspected robbers in Germany appear to have miscalculated the quantity of explosives needed to blow their way into a rural bank.

The building housing the bank in the northern village of Malliss was largely destroyed by an overnight explosion.

The bank’s cash machine survived intact and the suspected thieves are not thought to have made away with any money, Germany’s Welt Online reported.

No-one was injured, though the blast damaged nearby cars and buildings.

Investigators were working on the assumption that robbers had placed their explosives, possibly made from petrol or acetylene, at the entrance to the bank, German broadcaster NDR said.

The presence of a delivery van near the site of the explosion indicated that the suspected thieves may have intended to drive off with the cash dispenser, local media reported.

Whoops!

 

What Happened to Black Children of WWII?

Where there are men and women…

Eventually there are going to be children.

Such was true in WWII where black American troops were stationed in Europe.

Prior to WWII, there were roughly 100,000 “black” Europeans, of which 24,000 were black Germans who were the children of black American troops, and post war African occupation troops. An estimated 25-50,000 of those died in concentration camps – which considering the brutal effectiveness of the “final solution” Hitler imposed on Jews, it is amazing that even half survived.

Black German Girl With Classmates, c 1930

After World War I, more blacks, mostly French Senegalese soldiers or their offspring, ended up in the Rhineland region and other parts of Germany. Estimates vary, but by the 1920s there were about 10,000 to 25,000 Afrodeutsche in Deutschland, most of them in Berlin or other metropolitan areas. Until the Nazis came to power, black musicians and other entertainers were a popular element of the nightlife scene in Berlin and other large cities. Jazz, later denigrated as Negermusik (“Negro music”) by the Nazis, was made popular in Germany and Europe by black musicians, many from the U.S., who found life in Europe more liberating than that back home. Josephine Baker in France is one prominent example. Both the American writer and civil rights activist W.E.B. du Bois and the suffragist Mary Church Terrell studied at the university in Berlin. They later wrote that they experienced far less discrimination in Germany than they had in the U.S.