Erschienen im Politico Newsletter:
THE WIRECARD HUNTER RETURNS: Fabio De Masi made his name as one of the key players in Germany’s Bundestag that helped hold Wirecard to account after the high-flying fintech company was revealed to be engaging in fraud on a massive scale. Now De Masi, who already served once as MEP in 2014, is back in Brussels. He’s sitting in the ECON committee and he thinks that there’s plenty more financial malfeasance to dig up.
Wagenknecht selbst schrieb nach dem Vorfall auf der Plattform X, dass es ihr wieder gut gehe. „Nur der Schreck steckt mir noch ein bisschen in den Knochen“, so Wagenknecht. Zugleich zeigte sie sich kämpferisch: „Wir lassen uns nicht einschüchtern!“.
Hallo. Schön, dass Sie hier sind.
Ich bin Petra Köpping, Spitzenkandidatin der SPD Sachsen zur Landtagswahl. Ich begrüße Sie und euch auf der Website der SPD Sachsen. Hier gibt es alle Informationen zur SPD in Sachsen und natürlich zu den anstehenden Wahlen.
Minuten vor der Attacke auf Ecke attackierte laut Polizei bereits eine vierköpfige Gruppe einen Wahlkampfhelfer der Grünen ebenfalls beim Plakatieren. Die Täter schlugen und traten ihn, auch der 28-Jährige wurde verletzt. Die Ermittler des Staatsschutzes gehen aufgrund der übereinstimmenden Personenbeschreibungen sowie der zeitlichen und örtlichen Nähe davon aus, dass es sich in beiden Fällen um dieselben Täter handelt.
Kiesewetter sprach sich auch dafür aus, „extremistische Bereiche“ in den Blick zu nehmen. Konkret nannte er „AfD-Sympathisanten, die sich Russland freiwillig andienen“ sowie deutsche Kämpfer bei russischen Söldner-Truppen oder anderen russischen Kampftruppen, die nach Deutschland zurückkehrten.
Monday’s Supreme Court decision appeared certain to shut down those and other efforts to remove the frontrunner for the GOP nomination from the ballot.
“States may disqualify persons holding or attempting to hold state office,” the court’s unsigned majority opinion read. “But states have no power under the Constitution to enforce Section 3 with respect to federal offices, especially the presidency.”
The Supreme Court ruled unanimously on Monday that former President Donald Trump can remain on Colorado’s presidential primary ballot, reversing an extraordinary state court ruling that had deemed him ineligible to run for the presidency and preventing future attempts by states to remove him from their ballots.
The decision, which came one day ahead of a slate of Super Tuesday primary elections from coast to coast, further cements Trump’s widening path to the Republican presidential nomination.
Mohammed Dahlan, an adviser to the president of the United Arab Emirates, outlined one under which Israel and Hamas would hand power to a new and independent Palestinian leader who could rebuild Gaza under the protection of an Arab peacekeeping force.
While such plans face steep challenges, the leaders of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the Emirates are open to supporting processes that are part of efforts leading to a Palestinian state, said Mr. Dahlan, who also has close ties to Egypt’s president, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi.
(08.02.2024)
On 6 February, Amnesty International and other members of the #KeepItOn coalition — a global network of over 300 organisations from 105 countries working to end internet shutdowns — wrote to the caretaker Prime Minister Mr Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar and Chief Election Commissioner Sikandar Sultan Raja, to ensure unfettered access to the internet, social media platforms, and all other communication channels throughout Pakistan’s general election.
Pakistani authorities have already imposed multiple shutdowns that violated the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly, including of opposition leaders and parties, during this election cycle.
(03.02.2024)
(31.01.2024)
Donald Trump called Robert F. Kennedy Jr. the “most radical left person running for office” in a late-night Truth Social post.
As noted on the Archives website: “The House of Representatives elects the President from the three (3) Presidential candidates who received the most electoral votes …”
Now, we come back to that magic number: 34.
If Kennedy were to get 34 percent of the vote, there would be a great deal of pressure on the House of Representatives to “do the right thing.”
“Impossible” yet again?
I give you Donald J. Trump being elected our 45th president in 2016 as evidence as to why such a scenario is entirely possible.
Biden’s deep-seated fear: that Netanyahu is eager to drag the U.S. into a wider war in the Middle East, a conflict that would ensure American weapons keep flowing to the region, troops soon follow and, in the maelstrom, international pressure on him to agree to a Gaza cease-fire and his domestic political difficulties both dissipate.
Not that the president would ever say such things in public.
The party wants to reform the EU and limit the European Commission’s power, but “if such a reform is not possible, if we cannot restore the sovereignty of the EU member states, then the citizens should decide, just like in the U.K.,” Weidel said in an interview with the Financial Times published Monday.
Praising the U.K. for its exit from the EU after a 2016 plebiscite, Weidel said she believes Germany “could have a referendum on ‘Dexit’ — a German exit from the EU.”
(20.01.2024)
Mit der CDU-Führung liegt Maaßen seit geraumer Zeit im Dauerkonflikt – seit vergangenem Jahr läuft ein Parteiausschlussverfahren gegen den ehemaligen Spitzenbeamten und derzeitigem Chef der Werteunion, einem Verein, in dem auch besonders konservative Mitglieder von CDU und CSU vertreten sind.
Bei einer Mitgliederversammlung am Samstag in Erfurt soll ein erster wichtiger Schritt in Richtung Parteigründung gegangen werden:
This is just the beginning.
Underscoring the urgency, arguments will be held on Feb. 8, during what is normally a nearly monthlong winter break for the justices. The compressed timeframe could allow the court to produce a decision before Super Tuesday on March 5, when the largest number of delegates are up for grabs in a single day, including in Colorado.
The high court’s decision to hear the case puts the nine justices squarely in the middle of the 2024 election as voting starts in the early primary contests and represents the court’s most significant involvement in a presidential race since its highly consequential decision 23 years ago in Bush v. Gore.
Die von der Regierung seit ihrer Vereidigung vor einem Jahr massiv vorangetriebene Justizreform hatte die israelische Gesellschaft tief gespalten. Über Monate gingen immer wieder Hunderttausende von Menschen auf die Straße, um dagegen zu protestieren – sie sahen im Vorgehen der Regierung eine Gefahr für Israels Demokratie.
Netanyahus Regierung argumentierte dagegen, das Gericht sei in Israel zu mächtig, man wolle lediglich ein Gleichgewicht wiederherstellen.
The reasonableness law, an amendment to Basic Law: The Judiciary, prohibits courts, including the High Court, from reviewing government and ministerial decisions using the „reasonableness“ standard. This standard permits the court to annul decisions based on substantive issues with the considerations behind them.
It was passed last year amid furious protests that saw hundreds of thousands Israelis take to rallies in Tel Aviv, Jerusalem and elsewhere across Israel.
– Twelve out of 15 Supreme Court judges ruled that the court has the authority to conduct judicial oversight on basic laws and intervene in extreme cases when the Knesset oversteps its legislative authority.
– The law was the first piece of legislation of Netanyahu‘s judicial overhaul — a plan that destabilized Israel‘s economy, military and foreign relations.
The Supreme Court struck down the law in an 8-7 vote.
Twelve of the 15 justices agree the court does have the authority to strike down Basic Laws.
(4.1.2015 / no specific date)
Imagine if Biden wins with Trump banned or jailed: US sermons about „democracy,“ or condemning Putin imprisoning Navalny, will be seen as an even bigger joke than now.
One of the West‘s key dissidents (Assange) is jailed. They censor dissent. Now they‘re trying to ban Trump.
It‘s always been a huge propagandistic mystery that the US media succeeds in convincing Americans that the US Govt defends freedom as it props up the worst dictators (Saudi, Egypt, etc.).
They‘re now escalating it in desperation: first after 2016, now seeing Trump/Biden polls.
Fear of free populations is a global trend. In Brazil, they imprisoned Lula in 2018 when leading all polls, then banned Bolsonaro from running.
In Pakistan, CIA engineered removal and imprisonment of Imran Khan.
All Western countries are increasing online speech controls.
Für Annahme der Motion … 144 Stimmen
Dagegen … 24 Stimmen
(21 Enthaltungen)
Den Antrag hat der Nationalrat am Montag mit einer Dreiviertel-Mehrheit angenommen (144 Ja-Stimmen, 24 Nein-Stimmen, 21 Enthaltungen). Damit stimmte die Mehrheit der Nationalrät*innen gegen die Position der Schweizer Regierung, dem Bundesrat. Dieser hatte auf die laufenden Verhandlungen in der EU zur Chatkontrolle verwiesen. Außerdem behauptet der Bundesrat: „Eine kontinuierliche, anlasslose staatliche Überwachung digitaler Kommunikation ist im Vorschlag der EU-Kommission nicht vorgesehen.“ Tatsächlich sieht der Kommissionsentwurf vor, dass nach einer behördlichen Anordnung alle Nachrichten bestimmter Anbieter automatisch gescannt werden, um zu entdecken, ob sie Darstellungen von Kindesmissbrauch enthalten oder ein Versuch von Grooming sind.
But upgrading and strengthening our institutions, that’s only half of the picture. We must also forge new partnerships, confront new challenges.
Emerging technologies, such as artificial intelligence, hold both enormous potential and enormous peril. We need to be sure they are used as tools of opportunity, not as weapons of oppression.
Together with leaders around the world, the United States is working to strengthen rules and policies so AI technologies are safe before they are released to the public; to make sure we govern this technology — not the other way around, having it govern us.
And I’m committed to working through this institution and other international bodies and directly with leaders around the world, including our competitors, to ensure we harness the power of A- — artificial intelligence for good, while protecting our citizens from its most profound risk.
It’s going to take all of us. I’ve been working at this for a while, as many of you have. It’s going to take all of us to get this right.
President Biden warned the U.N. General Assembly Tuesday that the world needs to make sure it governs artificial intelligence and „not the other way around, having it govern us.“
Biden, speaking in New York City, said „emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence hold both enormous potential and enormous peril.“
Whatever the outcome, Israeli politics is undergoing a tectonic change. We have shifted from normal politics, which promises mundane improvements and sometimes delivers them – to messianic politics, which promises paradise on earth but tends to create hell. A radical messianic group has risen to power. Like the Bolsheviks and the Khomeinists, the Israeli messianic zealots are certain of three things:
• They know the way to ultimate redemption.
• To bring about that redemption, they require unlimited power.
• Any means used to acquire that power are acceptable, and every sacrifice is legitimate.
(27.11.2012)
Verfassungsorientiert, demokratisch, säkular, sozial, international solidarisch, nichtinterventionistisch und für die Freiheit für den Menschen.
Das fehlt. Hier und anderswo.
(13.01.2022)
Administrative agencies are creatures of statute. They accordingly possess only the authority that Congress has provided. The Secretary has ordered 84 million Americans to either obtain a COVID–19 vaccine or undergo weekly medical testing at their own expense. This is no “everyday exercise of federal power.” In re MCP No. 165, 20 F. 4th, at 272 (Sutton, C. J., dissenting). It is instead a significant encroachment into the lives—and health—of a vast number of employees. “We expect Congress to speak clearly when authorizing an agency to exercise powers of vast economic and political significance.” Alabama Assn. of Realtors v. Department of Health and Human Servs., 594
U. S. ___, ___ (2021) (per curiam) (slip op., at 6) (internal quotation marks omitted). There can be little doubt that OSHA’s mandate qualifies as an exercise of such authority. The question, then, is whether the Act plainly authorizes the Secretary’s mandate. It does not. The Act empowers the Secretary to set workplace safety standards, not broad public health measures.
(…)
The Solicitor General does not dispute that OSHA is limited to regulating “work-related dangers.” Response Brief for OSHA in No. 21A244 etc., p. 45 (OSHA Response). She instead argues that the risk of contracting COVID–19 qualifies as such a danger. We cannot agree. Although COVID–19 is a risk that occurs in many workplaces, it is not an occupational hazard in most. COVID–19 can and does spread at home, in schools, during sporting events, and everywhere else that people gather. That kind of universal risk is no different from the day-to-day dangers that all face from crime, air pollution, or any number of communicable diseases. Permitting OSHA to regulate the hazards of daily life—simply because most Americans have jobs and face those same risks while on the clock—would significantly expand OSHA’s regulatory authority without clear congressional authorization.
(Jan 13, 2022)
“There is nothing to talk about with someone who decided to turn himself into [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and Israel into a dictatorship,” the protest statement continues, “we will fight Netanyahu to the end so that Israel remains a liberal democracy.”
This has brought them deserved admiration in the small bubble of the Western human-rights industry and helped with much-needed funding, and has done absolutely nothing to change the dismal situation on the ground, which has steadily gotten worse.
The plaudits and platforms abroad have not resulted in any pressure on successive Israeli governments to change their policies. Not one foreign government or major financial body has changed its policies towards Israel as a result.
(11. August 2018)
Sehr zum Leidwesen der E.U.-Reichsbürger und ihrer entsprechenden Pendants kann in der Berliner Republik die Verfassung nur durch Zwei-Drittel-Mehrheit in zwei Parlamentskammern (Bundestag und Bundesrat) geändert und nur durch eine Volksabstimmung gestürzt werden.
Im Gegensatz dazu werden Israels “Grundgesetze” lediglich in einer einzigen Parlamentskammer (der Knesset) mit absoluter Mehrheit beschlossen, wie alle anderen Gesetze. Inwieweit sich der Status der “Grundgesetze”, die irgendwann einmal eine Verfassung bilden sollen, überhaupt von allen anderen Gesetzen unterscheidet, ist in Israel bis heute umstritten.
Dieser faule Kompromiss entstand, da nach der Unabhängigkeitserklärung Israels in 1948 keine verfassungsgebende Versammlung gewählt wurde und auch das Parlament diesbezüglich keine Entscheidung traf.
„It has become a disturbing feature of some recent opinions to criticize the decisions with which they disagree as going beyond the proper role of the judiciary,“ Roberts wrote. He said the majority came to its decision by adhering to court precedent „old and new“ that „requires that Congress speak clearly before a Department Secretary can unilaterally alter large sections of the American economy.“
Kagan in a scorching dissent argued that the court itself overstepped its bounds and by doing so is barreling to a future where it is the „maker of national policy“ by failing to defer to President Joe Biden and Congress to set the national agenda.
„That is no proper role for a court,“ Kagan wrote. „And it is a danger to a democratic order.“ (…)
The chief justice agreed with Kagan that the case is about a branch of government overstepping its authority, but Roberts remained steadfast in his view that it was the executive branch.
(June 30, 2023)
Senators Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) want President Joe Biden to forgive $50,000 in federal student loans per borrower. They claim that he can do this unilaterally through executive order.
(…)
The $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief plan proposed by President Biden does not include any student loan forgiveness.
(Sep 2, 2022)
Earlier this year, there was an important legal dispute in Germany, about whether electronic voting machines were legal for use in German government elections. The dispute was decided by the German Constitutional Court (similar to the U.S. Supreme Court), and the short answer was „no.“ Now, we have available an official English translation of the ruling. As I had been told before, the ruling really does seem to ban any kind of computing equipment from being used in German elections. The legal reasoning was interesting enough that I thought I‘d share one reflection on it. The basis for the ruling was the Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (similar in function to the U.S. Constitution) and the principle that „all essential steps in the elections are subject to public examinability.“
(Mar. 25, 2009)
The Court invalidated the Federal Voting Machine Regulation (Bundeswahlgeräteverordnung, Sept. 3, 1975, BUNDESGESETZBLATT I at 2459, as amended, available at http://bundesrecht.juris.de/bwahlgv/index.html). This Regulation failed to require transparent control mechanisms for ensuring an accurate vote count and thereby violated article 38 and article 20, paragraphs 1 and 2, of the Basic Law (the Federal Constitution) (Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany (Grundgesetz, GG) [in English translation], http://www.iuscomp.org/gla/statutes/GG.htm#20 (last visited Mar. 23, 2009)). Article 38 guarantees free and equal elections, whereas article 20, paragraph 1, requires that governmental power be based on elections and paragraph 2 guarantees that laws and regulations are in conformity with the Constitution.
(Aug. 16, 2022)
Republicans under Trump’s leadership view voting as a privilege that should be zealously guarded against those who can’t affirmatively prove their eligibility on demand or who aren’t able or willing to stand in long lines on Election Day under the watchful eyes of professional intimidators. All the fatuous talk these days of the GOP being the party of the working class is hard to square with its determination to maintain a throwback system of voting that makes it hard for working people to cast ballots during restricted hours on a weekday.
#TrollingStone #RollingSmear
Das Kölner Amtsgericht hat eine 48 Jahre alte Frau wegen „Billigung des russischen Angriffskriegs auf die Ukraine“ schuldig gesprochen, wie Medien berichten. Die Richterin verurteilte die Frau am Dienstag zu einer Geldstrafe von 30 Tagessätzen zu je 30 Euro. Nach Überzeugung des Gerichts hatte die Ukrainerin am 8. Mai 2022 „bei einer pro-russischen Demonstration“ in Köln den Krieg „für andere wahrnehmbar gutgeheißen und befürwortet“, wie es in der Urteilsbegründung hieß.
Laut Medienberichten hatte die Frau in einem Fernseh-Interview, das in der Verhandlung in Augenschein genommen wurde, gesagt: „Russland ist kein Aggressor“. Zudem habe sie gesagt, das Vorgehen Russlands sei „alternativlos“. Das Gericht war überzeugt, dass die Äußerungen der Frau geeignet seien, „den öffentlichen Frieden zu stören“.
Man hätte diese Liste der „braven“ Künstler laut dem Artikel noch erheblich verlängern können: Unter dem Stichwort #impfenschuetzt hatten einige Veranstalter und Künstler dafür geworben, sich impfen zu lassen – mit dabei waren Bands wie Die Toten Hosen, Beatsteaks, Tocotronic, Element of Crime, Isolation Berlin und Silbermond, die mit der Beteiligung an der Kampagne auch die durch die Corona-Politik und die aggressive Impfkampagne hervorgerufenen gesellschaftlichen Verwerfungen indirekt gerechtfertigt haben.
Auch die Band Die Ärzte gliederte sich auf ihrer Webseite voll in die dominante offizielle Darstellung ein: In einer Band-Mitteilung sollte wohl eine Schockwirkung mit Formulierungen wie „qualvollem Ersticken“ erzielt werden, die „Zukunft der Kultur“ wurde vom Impf-Fortschritt abhängig gemacht, ebenso war das Impfen laut „Die Ärzte“ (ganz Regierungslinie) Voraussetzung für „normale Bedingungen“ und dafür, dass „das Leben weitergeht“.
Canada’s federal and provincial governments’ COVID-19 policies were unprecedented. These interventions into Canadians’ lives, our families, businesses, and communities were, and to great extent remain, significant. In particular, these interventions impacted the physical and mental health, civil liberties and fundamental freedoms, jobs and livelihoods, and overall social and economic wellbeing of nearly all Canadians.
These circumstances demand a comprehensive, transparent, and objective national inquiry into the appropriateness and efficacy of these interventions, and to determine what lessons can be learned for the future. Such an inquiry cannot be commissioned or conducted impartially by our governments as it is their responses and actions to the COVID-19 which would be under investigation.
(31.05.2023)
The process of government-media propaganda coordination is not limited to Canada, nor to Covid issues. #Kennedy24
(21.04.2023)
The regular CBC „experts“ bribed hundreds of thousands of dollars. Watch until the end. Rodney Palmer‘s testimony at the National Citizens Inquiry shows CBC planted a fake sign at the convoy and knowingly lied throughout the past 3.5 years at the cost of all good Canadians. The exposure of the CBC has finally come. Find out how CTV and other mainstream news channels also signed on to be part of a new fake news group with an actual name, so they would all tout the same lies at the same time in unison. Support the nationalcitizensinquiry.ca and consider donating to their extensive costs and/or share the inquiry dates WIDELY on all of your platforms.
(17.05.2023)
Kley argumentiert, das Gesetz könne in Kombination mit dem mittlerweile berühmt-berüchtigten «Notstandsartikel» der Bundesverfassung ungeahnte Folgen haben. In aller Kürze: Mit dem Klimagesetz nehme das Risiko zu, dass der Bundesrat dermaleinst mit Notrecht – an Parlament und Volk vorbei – klimapolitische Eingriffe beschliesse.
Andreas Kley gehört in Sachen Notrecht zu den prominentesten Kritikern des Bundesrats. Die Häufung der letzten Jahre – von der Rettung der UBS 2008 über die Corona-Krise bis zum CS-UBS-Deal im März 2023 – beschäftigt ihn.