German journalist defended over ‘Nazis out’ Twitter controversy

German journalist posted an anti-Nazi slogan.  The post earned her vitriol and death threats from far-right users.

Deutsche Welle 1.7.2019

Prominent German lawmakers and journalists have posted messages of support for a journalist who was virulently criticized for posting “Nazis out” (“Nazis raus”) on her personal Twitter account.

“What @nicolediekmann is experiencing right now, as a woman, as a journalist, as a democrat, affects us all,” wrote the Greens’ parliamentary leader, Katrin Göring-Eckardt.

The phrase — a play on the neo-Nazi phrase “Foreigners Out” — is a well-known anti-fascist slogan in Germany. Nicole Diekmann, a journalist at public broadcaster ZDF, received hundreds of comments and thousands of retweets after she posted it on New Year’s Day.

Read more: German Green Party chief Robert Habeck quits Twitter after data hack

While many comments were supportive, others lashed out at her for using the phrase and writing, “Everyone who doesn’t vote for the Green Party” in a sarcastic reply to one user who asked her: “Who is a Nazi?” Some of the posts implicitly called for Diekmann’s murder.

The controversy intensified on Monday after the Berliner Zeitung newspaper published a commentary denouncing Diekmann’s critics, leading many German publications and politicians from the Greens, Social Democrats (SPD) and Left Party to publish posts with the hashtag “#NazisRaus” (Nazis Out).

 

Explosion outside AfD office. Police detained three people after blast in German city of Döbeln. Anti-terror investigators see blast as escalation of anti-AfD vandalism.

This is reminiscent of the Weimar Republic which was founded in 1919 after WWI.  Fourteen years later the Nazis came into power on January 30, 1933.  In Germany today the middle road is being carved out.  The extremes are gaining more prominence. The AfD has 93 seats in the Federal Reichstag.  Well over 10 percent.

Deutsche Welle 1.4.2019

German authorities may soon release three suspects who were detained following a blast near the AfD’s local office in Döbeln, officials said on Friday.

The men, local Germans aged 29, 32, and 50, are suspected of detonating an “unknown substance” in the street on Thursday evening.

The explosion damaged the door and windows of the AfD office and set fire to promotional materials inside, prompting firefighters to deploy to the scene. Nearby cars were reportedly also damaged. No injuries were reported.

On Friday, prosecutors said they suspected the three men were behind the attack, but added that they would not request their detention because there was insufficient grounds to do so.

“The attack against the AfD office in Döbeln is extraordinary given that the explosion meant accepting that people could be harmed,” the state police said. A task force for investigating extremism and terrorism, it added, was probing Thursday’s incident.

Police said there had been a series of attacks against AfD offices in the eastern state of Saxony in recent weeks, but added that most of them were limited to vandalism.

Angela Merkel and hundreds of German politicians hacked

Translation of  Wall Art:  “Nobody Must be a Radical.”   Lee’sPerspectives  in Frankfurt October 15, 2018.  This  graffiti art was well publicized in Germany.  The wall is across the street from the Frankfurt Courthouse. Is  Hacking the German Government Radical??

Deutsche Welle 1.4.2019

Germany’s digital defense body is “intensively” investigating the apparent data leak that saw data of hundreds of politicians from across the political spectrum being published online, a spokesman for the Federal Office for IT Safety (BSI) said on Friday.

“Hacking attack against politicians: The BSI is currently intensively probing the issue in close cooperation with other federal institutions,” the BSI said on Twitter, adding that “according to what we know so far” the government’s confidential networks were unaffected.

The hack targeted all of Germany’s political parties currently represented in the federal parliament, except for the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD). The party confirmed to DW that it had not been affected.

Preliminary review of the documents discovered no sensitive information. However, the data published on Twitter included mobile phone numbers, contact info, and credit card details from members of Germany’s major parties. The leak also included banking and financial details, ID cards and private chats.

Justice Minister Katarina Barley described the incident as a “serious attack.”

“The perpetrators wanted to damage our trust in democracy and our institutions,” she told reporters.

Interior Minister Horst Seehofer said an initial analysis suggests that the material was obtained from cloud services, email accounts or social networks.

Chancellery data leaked

Among the apparent targets were Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

“With regard to the Chancellery it seems that, judging by the initial review, no sensitive information and data have been published and this includes (from) the chancellor,” a government spokeswoman told reporters.

The hackers published Merkel’s fax number, email address and several letters written by and addressed to her, according to the DPA news agency.

Photo:  Liz Heidhues

Billboard Along Trump’s Mar-A-Lago Route Likens GOP To Soviets

Great Political Statement 

By Associated Press
January 3, 2019

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The next time President Donald Trump travels to his Mar-a-Lago resort, he’ll be greeted by a billboard likening the Republican Party to the Soviets.

The Palm Beach Post reports the political action committee Mad Dog replaced Thursday its billboard calling for the president’s impeachment with a red sign with gold lettering reading “GOP” — except the “O” is a hammer and sickle topped by a star. The imagery mimics the former Soviet Union’s flag.

The billboard along the presidential motorcade’s route to Mar-a-Lago is a jab at Trump for his alleged ties to Russian President Vladimir Putin, a former Soviet spy.

Republican spokeswoman Taryn Fenske said her party was “glad” that Democrats spent money on what she called “lame stunts’ while Republicans invested in successful campaigns.

Pelosi Knows the Art of the Deal. Trump Just Talks About It.

Daily Beast 1.3.2019

Newly sworn-in Speaker Nancy Pelosi may have found a way to tame the savage beast that is Donald Trump. The mother of five knows not to negotiate with an unreasonable child.

“I am in the White House waiting for the Democrats to come on over and make a deal on Border Security,”  Trump tweeted like the reality show host he was not long ago. Pelosi, on vacation with family in Hawaii, hung out a Do Not Disturb sign while the president was forced by the optics of the shutdown he named after himself to forego as much as a  “working” round of golf with his sometime bro Sen. Lindsey Graham. They were reduced to lunch.

Enter the House of Pelosi. Democratic goal: Destroy Donald Trump.

Wall Street Journal Editorial 1.2.2019

GOOD GOOD GOOD – DESTROY DONALD TRUMP

Nancy Pelosi takes the oath as Speaker of the House for the third time Thursday, a suitable reward for gaining 40 seats. If you expect a new era of progress in Washington, however, fair warning. The main Democratic goal will be investigating, not legislating. Then again, the country could do worse than policy gridlock, and it probably will.

The new Democratic House is being compared with the first Pelosi majority of 2006, but there’s one big difference: The 2018 Democrats ran on no discernible agenda beyond rejecting Donald Trump and all his works. The animating purpose of Congress will be investigations to damage, and perhaps impeach, the President to tee up total Democratic control after 2020.

Democrats will also run investigations into payments to Stormy Daniels; the Administration’s policy of separating children at the border; and every consultation with a business about a deregulatory decision. House Democrats will trail every cabinet officer down to whether he ordered a cocktail on a commercial flight. This will present even greater problems in staffing federal agencies.

On policy, Mrs. Pelosi owes her speakership to the left and she will tilt that way. She is already facing a revolt on the left over a rules change to impose pay-as-you-go budgeting. Liberals think it will hamstring their spending plans. That’s fine with us since Paygo, as it’s known, was always more political eyewash than genuine fiscal restraint.

The real House tension will be between the new socialist vanguard and the 30 or so Democrats who won in GOP-leaning districts. It will be instructive to see how many defect from the Green New Deal or Medicare for All if Mrs. Pelosi dares to bring those to the floor.

One certainty is the end of pro-growth legislation. The trend will be toward higher taxes, more regulation and more harassment of business. The new House rules have already cashiered “dynamic scoring” that forced the Congressional Budget Office to think about how a proposal affects the economy. Dynamic scoring isn’t some GOP effort to prove taxes “pay for themselves” but a tool that informs lawmakers of economic costs and trade-offs and can improve policy.

The GOP Senate, with a new majority of 53, should be able to check the left’s impulses to jack up the corporate tax rate or restore the federal deduction on all state and local taxes. Mrs. Pelosi will try to lure Mr. Trump into a deal on infrastructure or drug prices. But Mr. Trump will be less likely to go along if he has to rely on the GOP to fend off impeachment.

It’d be nice to think there’s a chance at cooperation on immigration, but it’s unlikely as long as Democrats think the issue gives them an edge in elections. It’s clear from the shutdown over “border security” that Democrats think they have the edge on immigration, even if collateral damage could be the young adult “Dreamers” who need legal clarity to stay in the country.

The best test of Mrs. Pelosi’s deal-making sincerity will be what she does on Mr. Trump’s new Nafta deal. The President went a long way in negotiations to appease unions, with Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown as Big Labor’s whisperer, but the President still doesn’t have the votes. When she took the gavel in 2007, Mrs. Pelosi stuck George Bush’s pending trade deals in a drawer.

All of this will unfold along with the fight for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination, which will reinforce the party’s anti-Trump fervor. Voters may think they sent Democrats to Washington to “check” Mr. Trump’s unpresidential habits. Americans may soon discover that they’ve invested those hopes in more polarization and vitriol.

Hostage Negotiator’s Lesson in Listening

‘In a volatile situation where someone’s life is on the line, there can be no shortcuts.’

Wall Street Journal – Masada Siegel 1.1.2019

Is listening a lost art? On TV news and talk shows, everyone seems to be interrupting one another. Likewise in the political arena. Listening is especially rare on social media, where people are eager to talk and loath to hear other points of view.

So recently I challenged myself to talk less and instead to actively listen, ask more questions, and think about the responses. In particular, everywhere I went I asked people if they feel listened to and if they listen to others.

At a media conference, one lady told me sometimes she gets nervous around new people, so she thinks about what she will say as she listens so that she can be part of the conversation. Another said that she wished people would listen and not respond with a solution, because sometimes she’s only looking for a sounding board.

One evening at a restaurant, I struck up a conversation with a couple and asked their opinion. They both said they weren’t good listeners and frequently interrupt people because they want to participate in conversations. “I talk a lot because I’m insecure and want people to like me,” the husband acknowledged. “Ironically, I’m reading lots of leadership books, which all say if you want people to like you, you need to be a better listener.”

Glenn Cohen, who recently retired as chief psychologist and hostage negotiator for the Israel Defense Forces, told me that listening can mean life or death in his line of work. There are five steps to negotiating a hostage’s release, he said; the first one is listening to the terrorist.

“The biggest mistake to make is to jump to the last step, which is behavioral change,” he said. “In a volatile situation where someone’s life is on the line, there can be no shortcuts. You must listen, as the hostage taker is all charged up, emotionally and physically.

“He has his goal, so you must hear him out and understand what he wants to accomplish,” Mr. Cohen said. “As a negotiator, you are looking for a win-win situation, and a hostage taker needs an opportunity to vent and let off steam, as their adrenaline is pumping and as they are in the moment. Unless they unload their demands, they don’t have the capacity to hear and consider behavior change.”

Listening is an influential skill. The more you give others space to talk, the better you understand them and the more willing they are to listen themselves.

Ms. Siegel is a freelance journalist who covers international affairs, business and travel.

“Troubadour for the Populist Left”

My Response to 2019 New Year’s Day Wall Street Journal Editorial

It is reassuring there is some consistency as the 2019 begins. The WSJ inveighs against Senator Warren with a typically snark laden editorial; “Troubadour for the populist left,” and the Commentariat makes for the usual Fox News chorus.  It’s regrettable that someone of Senator Warren’s intelligence, integrity and acumen is discounted in such a casual manner. But, as I have written before, Amerika got what it deserves with Trump. Sadly, the majority of the country continues to live with the Trumpian train wreck.

Elizabeth Warren: Run against Trump: ‘I’m in this fight’

My wife’s maiden name is Elizabeth Ann Warren.  Both women are battlers.

Trump needs to be brought down by a Woman.

Senator Warren, who has fought for consumer protection, describes herself as a defender of the ordinary American against the interests of the wealthy and powerful.

Ms. Warren, 69 years old, an Oklahoma-born former Harvard Law School professor with a specialty in bankruptcy law, saw her national political stature rise following the 2008 financial crisis. She was the architect of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and was President Obama’s first choice to lead it before her nomination was blocked by Senate Republicans.