Category Archives: Politics

“Verbale Aggressivität” und “hohe Affinität zu Waffen”

Deutsche Welle: Immer mehr “Reichsbürger” unter Beobachtung. “Der Verfassungsschutzbericht ist wegen des Asylstreits liegen geblieben. Jetzt werden die neuen Zahlen offiziell vorgestellt – zusammen mit alarmierenden Bewertungen.”

“Viele “Reichsbürger” behaupten, das Deutsche Reich existiere in den Grenzen von 1937 fort. Beide Gruppen erkennen die Bundesrepublik Deutschland nicht als Staat an, lehnen deren Rechtssystem ab und weigern sich oftmals, Steuern oder Bußgelder zu zahlen. Die Mitglieder der Szene werden daher vom Verfassungsschutz aktuell als “staatsfeindlich und extremistisch” eingestuft.”

“A frontal attack on the EU and European values”

Deutsche Welle: German politicians allied against Steve Bannon. “Steve Bannon plans to build a right-wing populist think tank in Europe. German lawmakers called the plans by the former adviser to the US president to influence the 2019 European elections “a frontal attack on the EU.””

Michael Roth, a center-left Social Democratic (SPD) lawmaker and minister of state for Europe: Europe should not “be afraid of nationalist campaigns with which Mr. Bannon would like to force Europe to its knees…our values are stronger than his hate and his lies.”

See also: Steve Bannon plans Brussels-based foundation ‘The Movement’ for EU far-right. “Donald Trump’s ex-strategist, Steve Bannon, told the Daily Beast he hopes the foundation will fuel the spread of right-wing populism across Europe. He wants to offer a right-wing alternative to George Soros’s foundation.”

Live from the International Space Station ISS

ESA: Good evening, Kraftwerk / Guten Abend Kraftwerk, guten Abend Stuttgart! (YouTube, 11:48min)

“On 20 July 2018 around 21:50 local time, ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst welcomed the legendary electronic band Kraftwerk and 7500 visitors to the Jazz Open Festival on Stuttgart’s Schlossplatz – live from the International Space Station, where he will live and work until mid-December 2018. During the call with space, Kraftwerk founding member Ralf Hütter and Alexander played a special duet version of the track Spacelab, for which Alexander had a tablet computer configured with virtual synthesizers on board.”

Alexander Gerst’s Horizon Blog: Good evening, Kraftwerk!

““Here in the European Columbus laboratory, the successor to the Spacelab, the European Space Agency ESA is researching things that will improve daily life on Earth. More than 100 different nations work together peacefully here and achieve things that a single nation could never achieve. We are developing technologies on board the ISS to grow beyond our current horizons and prepare to take further steps into space, to the Moon and Mars,“ Alexander said.

However, as Kraftwerk founding member Ralf Hütter emphasised, Alexander’s appearance was not only about greeting Kraftwerk and the audience in Stuttgart but also about “music as the universal language of the world“ . After addressing the crowd, he and Alexander played a special duet version of the track Spacelab, for which Alexander had a tablet computer configured with virtual synthesizers on board.”

Alexander Gersts Horizon Blog: Guten Abend Kraftwerk!

“Nachdem Alexander Gerst sich mit einem „Good Night Earth“ vom Publikum verabschiedet hatte, fuhren Kraftwerk mit ihrem fulminanten Set fort, während die Zuschauerinnen und Zuschauer sich wohl noch ein paar Mal verblüfft fragten, ob das, was sie da gerade gesehen und gehört hatten, auch wirklich live und real war. Wir können sagen: Das war es.”

Bannon “claims European integration is coming to an end

Deutsche Welle: Steve Bannon plans Brussels-based foundation ‘The Movement’ for EU far-right. “Donald Trump’s ex-strategist Steve Bannon told the Daily Beast he hopes the foundation will fuel the spread of right-wing populism across Europe. He wants to offer a rightwing alternative to George Soros’s foundation.”

Deutsche Welle: US-Rechtspopulist Steve Bannon plant rechte Bewegung in Europa. “Der Ex-Berater von Donald Trump und Vorreiter der radikalen Rechten in den USA will eine rechtspopulistische Bewegung in Europa gründen – als Gegengewicht zum Investor George Soros, der liberale Gruppen unterstützt.”

“The Trump administration implemented this policy by choice and could end it by choice.”

The Washington Post: The facts about Trump’s policy of separating families at the border.

“The doublespeak coming from Trump and top administration officials on this issue is breathtaking, not only because of the sheer audacity of these claims but also because they keep being repeated without evidence. Immigrant families are being separated at the border not because of Democrats and not because some law forces this result, as Trump insists. They’re being separated because the Trump administration, under its zero-tolerance policy, is choosing to prosecute border-crossing adults for any offenses.

This includes illegal-entry misdemeanors, which are being prosecuted at a rate not seen in previous administrations. Because the act of crossing itself is now being treated as an offense worthy of prosecution, any family that enters the United States illegally is likely to end up separated. Nielsen may choose not to call this a “family separation policy,“ but that’s precisely the effect it has.

Sessions, who otherwise owns up to what’s happening, has suggested that the Flores settlement and a court ruling are forcing his hand. They’re not. At heart, this is an issue of prosecutorial discretion: his discretion.”

NYmag Daily Intelligencer: Trump Ends Family Separations by Ordering Family Detentions.

“In effect, Trump has switched from holding children hostage to congressional action to holding entire families hostage instead.

So in the very narrowest sense Trump is complying with demands that he end family separations at the border, but only by way of creating the equally large problem of large-scale family detentions at the border, and ignoring the more obvious option of abandoning the whole “zero tolerance“ posture until such time as the system can be overhauled. The president’s allies will try to sell us on his compassion for kids and his extreme flexibility in modifying his administration’s procedures without, of course, giving up its devotion to The Law. The real question is whether the sights and sounds from the border that turned the cruel Trump-Sessions policy into a political disaster will get that much better now that children are no longer suffering on their own.”

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