60 Years Later

August 13th will be the 60th anniversary of the construction of the Berlin Wall. To commemorate this there are a number of programs and films currently bring run on German TV reflecting on the history of the 20th century in Germany in general and the rise and fall of the Wall more specifically. One of the most powerful comments was from a West German born in 1944 who made the decision as a 16 year old to emigrate to East Germany to help fulfill the Socialst ideal. He became disenchanted but after the construction of the Wall and so was trapped in a One-Party state. His dislusionment eventually led to his imprisonment for political dissent. He recalled how he was brutally beaten and his crying out to his tormentors, "but you are Socialists, not Nazis!" The moral of the story is that brutality and repression are not specific to the left or right, but rather is much more a question of which political group is in power under a One-Party state. Regardless of the political affliation any and all opposition must be repressed in order to preserve the party in power. The less legitimate the ideals of the powers that be- the more violent the repression of the "other". The Trump Republicans want a One-Party state predicated on inequality in terms of race, gender, religion and economics (taxes/regulation). They will employ the brutality common to all police states to protect their position. I can only hope they are unsuccessful in their current attempt to overthrow our democracy.

Why Do Progressives Keep Coming Up With Terrible Names For Good Ideas

As a child of the 50's growing up in a government town built in 1943 we had 7 school districts- 6 white and one black. Because of that same government in 1954 when the federally mandated desegration laws came into effect the High School became integrated as did one of the two junior high schools. The High School one town over was burnt to the ground rather than allow it to be desegrated. This is a simple example of systemic racism. It is an objective observation of segragation at the national level in 1943; of desegragation at the federal level in 1954; and the fight against desegration at the State level, also in 1954. So why let a discussion about these historical facts get mired down in the term Critical Race Theory? Who does the marketing for the progressive forces? How did they come up with a term so easily open to intentional misinterpretation? Not to mention that it isn't a theory. It is part of the history of the United States- it's not always pretty- but it is necessary. Then move on to Black Lives Matter. Of course in the context it is to be understood there is an implicit Black Lives Matter "too". But by leaving it out they have created a narrative that is immediately transformed into White Lives Matter, and by so doing have left the door open for white racists to turn themselves into the victim, something at which they and their Republican supporters are very adept. Again who is in charge of marketing here. My last pet peeve is Defund the Police. Of course if you have the time to explain the idea behind the slogan there is some sense to be found, but only barely. But Defund the Police is so easily manipulated and once again an important idea is appropriated under a completely different narrative. What is wrong with Reform the Police. Recent analysis of complaints against individual police officers across major cities in the US show that a small minority make up the majority of the complaints- the so-called bad apples. The problem is that the bad apples have been protected by the police forces thus altering the the proverb: some bad apples do spoil the bunch. There is a pressing need for police reform, especially in light of the historical racial biases, but frankly across the board. There should be much more emphasis on training, and retraining- and a reevaluation of what we are actually asking our police forces to do. To often they are asked to deal with members of the public who would be better seved by medical rather than law enforcement personnel and that is a direct result of defunding social services. I for one don't want to defund the police. I do want to increase funding to many other services and let a reformed police department focus on law enforcement.

Time to Start Thinking About the Revolution

Forget about the challenges in Thuringia and the upheaval caused on the back of it.

Is anyone watching the systematic destruction of democracy in the USA?

It is true that the Democrats only have themselves to blame by removing the requirement of 60 votes to approve executive branch nominations and federal judicial appointments to a simple majority. By so doing they opened the door for the Republicans to extend the simple majority to nominations for the Supreme Court.

This was the beginning of the attack on the judicial branch of government.

The failed impeachment process- and frankly the result was never going to be anything but an acquittal- has now allowed Trump through his minion Barr in the Justice Department to essentially remove the rule of law as regards anyone Trump wishes to protect.

By extension, I have to assume that the Justice Department can just as easily remove the rule of law for anyone Trump wishes to attack.

The next question is whose side are the police on?

On whose side are the military?

And why is it that just the right wing arms itself and forms militias.

Thuringian Fall-Out

The continuing self-destruction of the major parties in Germany has been accelerated by the shenanigans in Thuringia.

There are many who blame the collapse of the CDU on Merkel's migration policy in 2015 although her decision to let over a million refugees in had been long in coming. For years the EU had hidden behind a ruling holding the country in which a refugee arrived responsible for the refugee. This meant that Greece and Italy in the main received the majority of refugees despite the fact that they were least prepared financially to manage the influx, and that was before the civil war in Syria really took off.

The Greeks and Italians generally had to deal with refugees risking crossing the Mediterranean. The hostilities in Syria opened a new avenue through Turkey into the Balkans creating a land route directly into the center of Europe. By the time the EU, primarily through the Germans, had negotiated a pact with the Turks whereby the Turks were paid to house the Syrians, it was too late.

The fear of immigrants, initially racially motivated as most of the economic migrants risking the sea route were Africans, was then exacerbated by the arrival of Muslim Syrians crating the perfect breeding ground for anti-muslim/anti-immigrant parties to prosper reaching their apex with the victory of the Brexit Party in the EU referendum of 2016 and the rise of openly right-wing authoritarian parties of Eastern Europe.

Despite the fact that Merkel's opening the door to the refugees was justifiable on many levels, she somehow didn't understand the need to explain her actions in a coherent fashion, leaving a vacuum for the right-wing to fill.

The AfD, was waning in 2015, only to be reinvigorated to the point that they are now the 3rd largest party in the Bundestag and have created the mess in Thuringia. Today, the chairperson of the CDU, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (AKK) announced her resignation as Party Chair and that she will not stand as Chancellor candidate in the next national election.

This has thrown all of Merkel's plans out the window. Her vision of the CDU as a solid party of the "middle" is now unclear. The right wing of the CDU might not be as adverse to working with the AfD.

This would not be the first time a Party of the Middle thinks its salvation lies to the Right. It would not be the first time a Party of the Middle thinks it can absorb a party from the Right without giving up its soul.

The next steps will be incredibly important.

The Saga Continues...

The FDP Minister President for Thuringia has indeed resigned although will run a caretaker government until a decision is made as to how to go forward.

It is not a good story.

The FDP continues to blame everyone but themselves for having accepted the poisoned chalice.

The AfD makes noises that if the Linke candidate, former Minister President Ramelow, is put to another vote they will get behind him and so put the Linke into the same position as the FDP (although with 22% of the vote the Linke has a claim)in that they will vote for Ramelow.

This is classic National Socialist disruption. Bjoern Hoecke should know. It has been legally cleared that he can be called a fascist. This has quickly morphed into him being openly called a Nazi. The trouble with this is that it has taken the entire discussion to the level of Nazi propaganda which is exactly where they want it to be. Fascists revel in crude, vile language- something we have experienced in the USA-while the rest of us try and reason and point out inconsistencies and outright lies.

You can't fight bloody-mindedness with lectures. People who base their decisions on emotion don't care about the "truth" because for them they are the truth.
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The traditional parties of the center had better get a grip on this or Germany too will descend into a hell of fascists on the one side, and socialist/communists on the other fighting it out in the streets.

We have seen this before, and again, the fascists not only embrace violence in their speech, but have also never been known to be shy to escalate their language in physical intimidation.

There is a reason we study history and this seems to be rapidly turning into the late 20's.

The Decline of the West Part II

The saga in Thuringia continues. Thomas Kemmerich has realised that his attempt to sell his manoeuvre as a win for the middle was met with overwhelming scorn and scepticism so he backtracked at first saying he would resign and then instead wiggled around to say that he can't just resign as that would leave Thuringia without a Minister President. He then announced he would hold office while a solution was found to either have a new election, which requires a majority in the Thuringian parliament, a vote of no-confidence which again requires a majority in the parliament, or he declares no confidence in himself basically hiding behind some technicalities of Thuringian parliamentary law.

Sound obtuse.

It is.

But it has thrown the FDP into a tailspin from which them may not recover on a national level as well as dragged the CDU through the mud opening up the possibility that AKK be replaced, perhaps by Mr Merz who is slippery as an eel and is definitely blind in his right eye.

All of which takes us back to the fallout of the impeachment that wasn't.

Fully recognising that hindsight is 20-20 it was always clear that the Senate was never going to convict Trump. Even if Alexander Hamilton hammered away in the Federalist Papers about the dangers of partisanship in the impeachment process he did not really come up with a solution other than to rely on the moral fortitude of the Senate to jump over their own shadow and do the right thing.

In the end Mitch Romney, for all his faults, was the only Republican member of the Senate who had the moral fibre to stand up and vote against Trump. The rest of the Republicans couldn't stand up because that effort requires backbone which is something the rest of them don't have.

What concerns me however are the next moves by Trump.

Having already embraced Hitler's quote to "make the lie big, make it simple, keep saying it, and eventually they will believe it" (Mein Kampf 1923) he has gone a step further and foreshadowed a Night of the Long Knives by getting rid of those who opposed him.

In the first instance Gordon Sondland and Alexander Vindman, but in keeping with true Nazi dogma, didn't stop with
Alexander, but went after his brother too- "one must eradicate the entire clan...".

The light of liberty is flickering.

How do we wake America up to the danger?

The Decline of the West

I have watched the slow motion carcrash known as the US Senate impeachment hearings. It was not a pretty picture.

But if the truth be told the only surprises were that even the red-state Democrats and still somewhat surprisingly Mitt Romney showed that they have a moral compass and are willing to put their beliefs ahead of their personal gain.

If only that could be said of the shenanigans in the former East German State of Thuringia.

Since the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany the main conservative party, the Christian Democratic Union (CDU)has been accused of being blind in their right eye ie could only see danger from the left and actually absorbed many ex-Nazi's into their ranks, as long as they had gone through the miracle of the Persilschein- the certificate which "washed" (ex)Nazis of their Nazi past. For those of you who are a little hazy on this I recommend Uli Edel's "Baader Meinhof Complex or Giulio Ricciarelli's "Labyrinth of Lies".

But I digress.

The State of Thuringia has 1.7mm inhabitants and has a history of being left of center. In 2014, Bodo Ramelow, a former West German who was investigated by the Federal Office for the Protection of the Constitution, (wouldn't it be great to have such a ministry in the USA) for alleged contacts in the 1980's with the German Communist Party who are outlawed in Germany, became Minister President for Thuringia.

This caused quite a stir as Ramelow had moved to Thuringia after the fall of the wall in 1989 to join the successor to the former East German Socialist Unity Party (SED), the Party of Democratic Socialism (PDS) which then morphed into a new party called The Left.

Ramelow required the backing of the left of center Social Democrats (SPD) which caused quite the furore as the SED was the East German Communist Party and left many (former) West Germans wondering just what had they incorporated into their Federal Republic.

As it turned out, Ramelow was anything but a left wing radical and ran the government fairly well and was expected to be returned in the next election, again requiring support from the SPD. At the 2019 elections he won 31% of the vote. Because he did not achieve a majority there was something akin to the Iowa caucuses where Ramelow ran against the rightwing Alternative for Germany AfD who had garnered 23% of the vote. In the first two rounds of voting amongst the delegates no one achieved a majority so in the third round, Thomas Kemmerich, the one of the delegates for the Liberal Democrats of Germany (LDP) which had won 5% of the vote decided to stand for Minister President between the left, Bodo Ramelow, and the right, the faschist Bjoern Hoecke.

In a clever move, knowing that the CDU who had garnered 21% of the vote would vote for Kemmerich as they couldn't vote for that "left wing wacko" Ramelo, the AfD with their 23% of the vote switched over to Kemmerich thereby becoming the "kingmakers".

This smelled very much of how Hitler came through the backdoor during the Weimar Republic.

It has disgraced the FDP, called the CDU into even more question then they already were under their new party leader Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer (AKK), and demonstrated that even though they haven't yet become the largest party at the State or National level that the AfD if nothing else is definitely politically astute- aren't most authoritarian populists- and left Germany reeling.

Stop press. As I am writing this Thomas Kemmerich, the FDP Minister President for Thuringia (for a day) has just declared new elections.

Tune in tomorrow.