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East Germany balloon escape

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Re: East Germany balloon escape

#291

Post by alt227 »

MarkusWandel wrote: post #284

What is just awesome, to a tinkerer, is the great can-do spirit people had then. You couldn't buy it, so you made it yourself. They were going to do a helicopter, but for the lack of a suitable engine. As if the rest was just a solved problem, and may well have been, given the background of one of them. And then to build a working hot air balloon that even looks pretty cool, entirely in clandestine conditions with im…

I feel like hard situations force people to adapt. This was not a unique time in history, it continues today in warzones and places like Ukraine. It is only a few comfortable western countires who have such comfort of everything being a click and 1 days delivery away.

Re: East Germany balloon escape

#292

Post by michalpleban »

nunobrito wrote: post #271
mothballed wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the form of authoritarian. The two of the richest countries on a GDP PPP basis are Lichtenstein and Singapore, also some of the most free economically, yet they could probably be described as benevolent authoritarian systems. Dubai further behind, although some similar points. It seems authoritarians that know how to use their authority to force the populace to accept (some forms of) freedom can perform be…

There was a democratic referendum in 2003 to essentially reduce the authority of the Liechenstein ruler, the population largely voted to grant absolute power to the ruling family: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_Liechtenstein_constitutio... Authoritarianism is the oldest form of effective government. Just as curious note, dictatorship was introduced during the Roman epoch and was used as temporary measure during w…

The ruler is not "avoiding" elections due to war, he is prohibited by the constitution to hold them during wartime (not to mention the feasibility of letting the inhabitants of occupied regions to exercise their voting rights). So it is not a dictatorship in any sense.

Re: East Germany balloon escape

#293

Post by _zagj »

justsomehnguy wrote: post #205
_zagj wrote: post #63

The GDR was a showcase state that, much like the DPRK, being on the periphery of the communist block, was propped up by USSR so that direct comparisons with its capitalist neighbor wouldn't be so unflattering. One of the most important forms of assistance the GDR and other satellites received was cheap energy. In the case of the GDR, through the Friendship Pipeline. One only need look at the DPRK to see how vital thi…

> yet the only option for citizens of the GDR and other communist states yawns https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1970s_Soviet_Union_aliyah

The Soviet Union had almost no legal emigration prior to the 1970s, and limited, targed emigration quotas after. The US, by contrast, prior to 1965, had strict quotas limiting immigration (based on national origins).

Re: East Germany balloon escape

#295

Post by dgxyz »

petre wrote: post #178
dgxyz wrote: post #175

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s still a thing in some areas from direct experience recently. Hell it’s still a thing with former East Germans I know in the UK. And it’s not about interchange fees - it’s about purchase surveillance. My ex partner wouldn’t even allow location services on her phone to put exif data in photos.

> wouldn’t even allow location services on her phone to put exif data in photos This should be standard practice, I do it as well. Not East German but East European. We had our own Stasi that would terrorize youths for listening to Western music of Radio Free Europe.

Yeah everyone suffered that side of things for sure. I'd rather have location recorded but not leaked out to whoever sold me the phone personally. I don't sync any files to the cloud already.

Re: East Germany balloon escape

#296

Post by hasanabi »

observationist wrote: post #42
mkmk wrote: post #5

The photo of the balloon here really helps put the story into perspective. https://web.archive.org/web/20190408181736/https://www.museu...

>Ballonfahrt in die Freiheit Gotta love the way German sounds to English ears. Always good for a chuckle. This guy is a hacker hero - do the engineering needed, get the proof of concept built, move fast, break things, start over and go big, then scores a victory over the commies and saves his family.

[flagged]

Re: East Germany balloon escape

#297

Post by cindyllm »

hasanabi wrote: post #296
observationist wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Ballonfahrt in die Freiheit Gotta love the way German sounds to English ears. Always good for a chuckle. This guy is a hacker hero - do the engineering needed, get the proof of concept built, move fast, break things, start over and go big, then scores a victory over the commies and saves his family.

[flagged]

[dead]

Re: East Germany balloon escape

#299

Post by qcnguy »

blahaj wrote: post #282
qcnguy wrote: post #275

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We're talking about North Korea executing children because their family members escaped. Doesn't get more left wing than North Korea. Not a good look to deploy a stock reply without thinking.

North Korea is an extremely class based society. About as far away from left as it gets.

[flagged]

Re: East Germany balloon escape

#300

Post by qcnguy »

vlowrian wrote: post #265
qcnguy wrote: post #251

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nice try. The German constitution is a poor document and doesn't protect political opinion, so your "constitutionally protected" political opinion caveat just makes it useless. You'd just defend every example with "our constitution allows that" rather than recognizing that it just means the constitution itself is wrong. Example: the American author CJ Hopkins has been repeatedly prosecuted in Berlin despite being acq…

Any source showing people being imprisoned or fined merely for expressing an anti-left opinion then? Which specific law were they convicted under? The claim that Germany has "no constitutional protection against double jeopardy" is false. Art. 103(3) of the constitution embodies ne bis in idem. The German criminal procedure allows legal remedies (appeals), including Revision (appeal on points of law), which can be br…

You're doing exactly what I said you'd do. Zero shame. Morality is not just a matter of opinion.

> the issue was not "criticizing COVID authoritarianism" as such, but the use of a banned symbol under 86a StGB

Of course it was the issue. German media puts swastikas on things without any legal problems when they are government aligned.

https://www.amazon.de/-/en/SPIEGEL-Nichts-gelernt-Jahre-Bund...

It's only people criticizing the left who get prosecuted under such laws. That's deliberate.

> Which specific law were they convicted under?

Germany forbids insulting politicians, and German politicians use it extensively. Habek has filed criminal complaints against over 800 people. The German Chancellor has probably filed thousands of such complaints given the numbering of the case files.

From a German court order:

At a time that cannot now be determined more precisely, in the days or weeks before 20 June 2024, the accused published an image file using his account that showed a portrait of the Federal Minister of Economic Affairs with the words “professional moron” … in order to defame Robert Habeck in general and to make his work as a member of the federal government more difficult.

The public prosecutor's office affirms the public interest in criminal prosecution.

This is punishable as defamation directed against persons of political life in accordance with §§ 185, 188 para. 1, 194 StGB. ...

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