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The Far Left, the Far Right, and Democracy in Germany James Kierstead

Posted By on February 14th, 2021

https://quadrant.org.au/magazine/2021/01/the-far-left-the-far-right-and-democracy-in-germany/

“Out of the ruins of one of history’s most destructive tyrannies, West Germans built one of the modern world’s most advanced and successful examples of the liberal democratic state, the city of laws, the Rechstaat. They did it while an offshoot of the other of the great tyrannies of the twentieth century carried on its work behind the Iron Curtain in the country’s eastern half.”

On February 5, 2020, Thomas Kemmerich, of the centrist Free Democratic Party (FDP) was elected premier (Ministerpräsident) of Thüringen, the former East German state (Land). Elections of state premiers don’t usually make headlines, but this time was different. Kemmerich was elected after the incumbent premier, Bodo Ramelow of the far-left Left Party (Die Linke), had failed to gain a majority in two previous rounds of voting. In the third round, the far-right AfD (Alternative für Deutschland, “Alternative for Germany”) dropped its own candidate for the premiership and voted for Kemmerich, who was then elected as premier with the support of members from the AfD, FDP and the CDU (the centre-right Christian Democratic Union). It’s not clear whether the FDP and CDU members knew that the AfD were going to support Kemmerich.

Whether they did or not, in accepting the votes of the AfD, these parties (or at least their Thüringen caucuses) violated a clear taboo in contemporary German politics. Ever since the emergence of the AfD as a significant force in the 2017 federal elections, all of the country’s major parties have agreed to lock out the newcomers, refusing to ally or co-operate with them. In accepting votes from the AfD, even if they also accepted votes from two other parties, Thomas Kemmerich was seen as having broken that compact, as were the Thüringen caucuses of the FDP and CDU.

And since the CDU is currently the senior partner in Germany’s coalition government as well as the party of Angela Merkel, things didn’t stop there. The day after Kemmerich’s election, Merkel, speaking from South Africa, pronounced the vote “unforgivable”. Merkel has been Chancellor since 2005, making her the longest-serving current head of government in the European Union. She’s widely respected both internationally and in Germany, where she’s often known affectionately as “Mutti” (Mum). It should come as no surprise, then, that her swift and clear condemnation of Kemmerich’s election made waves, in Thüringen and in the CDU.

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Black Lives Matter Rioters Bite Cops, Assault 72-Year-Old Man Daniel Greenfield

Posted By on February 14th, 2021

https://www.frontpagemag.com/point/2021/02/black-lives-matter-rioters-bite-cops-assault-72-daniel-greenfield/

It’s okay. Impeachment over that “insurrection” is over so it’s okay to start launching new insurrections.

Police arrested nearly a dozen anti-NYPD protesters and a member of the press was assaulted during a demonstration in Manhattan Friday night, according to the NYPD.

From the very neutral language, you know these weren’t conservatives. 

The demonstration was peaceful until an American flag was burned and protesters rushed at police officers, according to the NYPD.

It was mostly peaceful until the violence began.

The situation quickly dissolved into chaos as police vehicles were vandalized and a mob attacked a Daily News photographer, police said.

Lots of passive voice. Events happen for no apparent reason. The “situation” somehow becomes “chaotic”. It’s like this is a natural phenomenon with no connection to human behaviors. Imagine media coverage of the Capitol Riot describing how the “situation quickly dissolved into chaos as some protesters grappled into police while others wandered through Congress” as opposed to, “Mitt Romney was seconds from death at the hands of a mob determined to kill everyone.”

The Daily News identified the photographer as Sam Costanza, who said a group of 10 to 15 protesters attacked him. The photographer said he might have a broken nose, according to The Daily News.

That’s about as many members of the press as were injured at the Capitol Riot.

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The New York Times Retracts the Sicknick Story  Like so many fake news stories about Donald Trump and his supporters, millions of Americans believe the Sicknick story as truth; even a correction won’t change their minds. By Julie Kelly

Posted By on February 14th, 2021

https://amgreatness.com/2021/02/14/the-new-york-times-retracts-the-sicknick-story/

In a quiet but stunning correction, the New York Times backed away from its original report that Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick was killed by a Trump supporter wielding a fire extinguisher during the January 6 melee at the Capitol building. Shortly after American Greatness published my column Friday that showed how the Times gradually was backpedaling on its January 8 bombshell, the paper posted this caveat:

UPDATE: New information has emerged regarding the death of the Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick that questions the initial cause of his death provided by officials close to the Capitol Police.

The paper continued to revise its story within the body of the original January 8 story: “Law enforcement officials initially said Mr. Sicknick was struck with a fire extinguisher, but weeks later, police sources and investigators were at odds over whether he was hit. Medical experts have said he did not die of blunt force trauma, according to one law enforcement official.”

What’s missing, however, is how the Times first described what happened to Sicknick. “Mr. Sicknick, 42, an officer for the Capitol Police, died on Thursday from brain injuries he sustained after Trump loyalists who overtook the complex struck him in the head with a fire extinguisher, according to two law enforcement officials.”

The account of Sicknick’s death was reported as fact, not speculation or rumor. Further, it appears that the anonymous sources were not law enforcement officials but people “close” to the police department—which means they could have been anyone from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) to inveterate liar U.S. Representative Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) to the Democratic mayor of Washington, D.C., Muriel Bowser.

Not only was the Times’ untrue story about Sicknick’s death accepted as fact by every news media organization from the Wall Street Journal to the Washington Post, political pundits on the NeverTrump Right also regurgitated the narrative that Sicknick was “murdered” as did lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.

In an outrageous effort to create more favorable optics before the impeachment trial, House Democrats honored Sicknick in a rare memorial at the Capitol Rotunda on February 3. Joe Biden, in a statement issued after Donald Trump was acquitted Saturday afternoon, repeated the lie about Sicknick. “It was nearly two weeks ago that Jill and I paid our respects to Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick, who laid in honor in the Rotunda after losing his life protecting the Capitol from a riotous, violent mob on January 6, 2021.”

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Jonathan Turley: Trump impeachment verdict – here’s why the age of rage will continue Our leaders should be calling for unity and civility after trial – instead they are fueling division Jonathan Turley

Posted By on February 14th, 2021

https://www.foxnews.com/opinion/trump-impeachment-trial-verdict-pelosi-schumer-jonathan-turley

There was a palpable sense of relief in Washington as the Trump impeachment trial came to a chaotic but final end. The verdict is in so now the vilification can begin.

Both Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., immediately weaponized the verdict and demonized those who voted to acquit. While the Democrats insisted that all senators should “vote their conscience,” that only meant if their conscience supported their side. Pelosi denounced opposing senators as cowards while Schumer lashed out at them for holding an opposing view of the evidence or the process.

While groups are targeting members on both sides, our leaders should be calling for unity and civility after the trial. Instead, they are fueling the politics of division.

CNN and other media followed suit. While Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., denounced former President Trump and said that he could still be held accountable for any crimes, CNN hosts Wolf Blitzer and Dana Bash immediately followed his speech by denouncing him as hypocritical.

There was nothing hypocritical in denouncing Trump’s conduct as “unconscionable” while also maintaining that the trial was unconstitutional. What Democratic members and commentators would not accept is that anyone could hold opposing views on these questions and not be a shill or coward.

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It’s Been One Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Week For The Democratic Party We witnessed five catastrophes worsen for Democrats, all in the course of one week. By Gabe Kaminsky

Posted By on February 14th, 2021

https://thefederalist.com/2021/02/14/its-been-one-terrible-horrible-no-good-very-bad-week-for-the-democratic-party/

It has been one tough week for the left.

Impeachment for political theatre was squashed, the Never Trump Lincoln Project further imploded when it was reported its leaders knew about the sexual harassment allegations against co-founder John Weaver, and the petition to recall California Gov. Gavin Newsom D-Calif. reached 1.5 million signatures to likely trigger a special election.

The Donald Trump Charlottesville rhetoric lie was debunked again, and now, Gov. Andrew Cuomo, D-N.Y. is facing bipartisan flack from lawmakers after a Freedom of Information Request (FOIA) request showed as many as 9,000 COVID-19 infected patients were sent to nursing homes under his directive, resulting in one of the nation’s worst COVID scenarios.

Trump Gets Acquitted Again

On Saturday, former President Donald Trump was acquitted in impeachment proceedings for the second time in two years, 57-43 in the Senate. It was the outcome anyone practical knew was coming for weeks—and one that only adds fuel to the left’s endless and compulsive disdain for the 45th president.

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T.S.ELIOT AND THE JEWS:DAVID GOLDMAN

Posted By on February 14th, 2021

https://www.firstthings.com/article/2021/03/t-s-eliot-and-the-jews

There recur in the work of ­T. S. Eliot two obsessions that make one cringe: his Jew-­hatred and his contempt for Shakespeare’s Hamlet. The first is sometimes excused as a reflection of ambient prejudice, the second as critical crankiness. In fact, these obsessions have a common source. The characteristically Jewish contribution to Western literature is the tragicomedy, which reached one of its peaks in Hamlet. Just as he disliked the Jews in general, Eliot rejected what might be termed the Jewish sensibility in culture.

None of this would concern us if Eliot were not the author of some important poems and even more important lines. There is no question about Eliot’s rank among the leading English-language poets of the past century, nor about his critical acumen. The issue is the end to which he directed his ability.

If the canonical definition of anti-Semitism is hating the Jews more than is absolutely necessary, the word surely applies to Eliot. One finds the stray smirk about Jews in the verse of ­Belloc and Chesterton, but Eliot, as Anthony ­Julius observed, makes Jew-hatred into art. No other poet employed so great a talent to elicit as much loathing as Eliot did in the “Bleistein” poems. First published in 1920 and reprinted in all subsequent editions of Eliot’s poetry through 1963, “Burbank with a ­Baedeker: Bleistein with a cigar” depicts a “­Chicago Semite Viennese” tourist on the Rialto Bridge in Venice, a nod to Shylock. He is less than a rat: “A lustreless protrusive eye / Stares from the protozoic slime. . . . The rats are underneath the piles. / The jew is underneath the lot.” Eliot revisited ­Bleistein in his masterwork, The Waste Land. The passage was dropped from the initial printings on the advice of Ezra Pound, who thought it too inflammatory, but it appeared posthumously in the annotated edition:

Full fathom five your Bleistein lies
Under the flatfish and the squids.
Graves’ Disease in a dead jew’s eyes!
When the crabs have eat the lids
Lower than the wharf rats dive
          Though he suffer a sea-change
          Still expensive rich and strange.

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Israeli flag pelted with eggs at University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Posted By on February 14th, 2021

https://worldisraelnews.com/israeli-flag-pelted-with-eggs-at-university-of-illinois-urban

“We are not the type of people to be scared. We’re not the type of people that would be silenced. We’re not the type of people to back down from what we believe in,” says student Jeremy Zelner.

An Israeli flag draped over the apartment balcony of a University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Jewish student was pelted with 10 to 20 eggs on Monday.

Jeremy Zelner told the local news station WCIA that he was at his apartment complex working on a paper at around 1:00 a.m. when he heard something hitting the window. He went outside and saw his flag covered with egg.

“But by that time, the egging stopped, and I looked outside and nobody was there,” he said. “So, it was a pretty relatively quick thing, but there was probably like 10, 15, 20 eggs that were just all over the balcony.”

Zelner contacted Champaign police and university officials. Police said they are still gathering information before beginning an initial investigation, according to WCIA.

The Israeli flag will remain on display, assured Zelner.

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Netanyahu’s 1st crisis with Biden? US demands Israel open skies or El Al will be banned By Batya Jerenberg

Posted By on February 14th, 2021

https://worldisraelnews.com/

If the government refuses, Israeli planes will not be allowed to land in the United States.

The U.S. administration has issued an ultimatum to Israel to open its skies to American flights this week or see El Al banned from landing in the U.S., Channel 12 News reported Saturday night.

According to the report, officials in the Biden administration sent a message saying, “Why do you need a crisis with the new administration? Allow our planes to fly to Israel.”

Fearing the import of new, deadlier mutations of the Covid-19 virus, the government shut down Ben Gurion airport on Jan. 26 to all foreign airlines. El Al won a tender last Monday to bring home some of the thousands of Israelis stuck in the U.S. on so-called emergency flights.

Delta and American Airlines made runs into Israel during previous months of the pandemic and are looking to recoup some of their massive losses from last year’s major international travel ban. Along with other foreign airlines, they are now being allowed only to bring in cargo, not passengers.

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A second justified impeachment outcome Michael Goodwin

Posted By on February 14th, 2021

https://nypost.com/2021/02/13/a-second-justified-impeachment-outcome-goodwin/

And so the verdict is . . . Hallelujah. It’s over. 

The acquittal of former President Donald Trump in his second impeachment trial is a fitting outcome to a case that should not have happened. Never before has a former president been impeached and put on trial, and it should never happen again. 

This was a show trial, an attempt by Democrats to humiliate Trump after his election defeat and force Republicans to side with him or against him. While the president’s speech before the Capitol riot was at times too angry and bitter, there was nothing in it that could reasonably be seen as intending to incite an insurrection, as the single House article charged. 

In fact, the case was in many ways the mirror image of the partisan putsch that Dem leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer engineered over the Ukraine piffle almost exactly a year ago. 

In the long history of our republic, there have been only four presidential impeachments, and two of them came courtesy of Pelosi and Schumer in the last two years. That’s making history in all the wrong ways. 

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The Return of ISIS is a Challenge Biden Must Not Ignore by Con Coughlin

Posted By on February 14th, 2021

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/17023/isis-return-biden

A recent United Nations Security Council report concluded that ISIS currently controls more than 10,000 fighters organized in small cells in Syria and Iraq.

To date most of the administration’s policy announcements have been aimed at reducing tensions with Iran, such as freezing arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf states and easing restrictions on the Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen.

By concentrating the new administration’s foreign policy resources on reviving the Iran deal and restoring relations with the Palestinian leadership, however, Mr Biden risks overlooking the extremely significant threat posed by the fanatical supporters of ISIS which, if left unchecked, could once again wreak havoc across the Middle East.

As the Biden administration prepares to implement its new policy on the Middle East, it is vital that its preoccupation with reviving the Iran deal does not result in the White House overlooking the considerable threat the Islamist fanatics of ISIS continue to pose to global security.

Since taking office, the main priorities of President Joe Biden’s newly-appointed foreign policy team, so far as the Middle East is concerned, have been to consider the prospects of reopening negotiations with Tehran over its nuclear programme, and to establish a dialogue with Palestinian leaders, who spent the past three years boycotting former President Donald Trump over his decision to relocate the US Embassy to Jerusalem.