Posted on 08/22/2023 12:04:38 PM PDT by CFW
Just when you may have thought things couldn’t get any crazier: American playwright and humorist C.J. Hopkins, profiled in this space on numerous occasions, has been sent a “punishment order” by a German judge, offering him a Sophie’s Choice of 60 days in jail or 3,600 euros.
His crime? Essentially, insulting the German health minister in a tweet, and using a scarcely-visible image of a Swastika on a mask in a book critical of the global pandemic response, The Rise of the New Normal Reich. He was first accused of this “crime” in June, shortly after Roger Waters was placed under investigation for wearing his clearly satirical “Pink” costume in a stage performance in Berlin. As I wrote when C.J. was charged weeks later, authorities claim that through the use of the mask image, C.J. was “disseminating propaganda, the contents of which are intended to further the aims of a former National Socialist organization.”
The judge in C.J.’s case has already heard free-speech argumentation from his lawyer, and this technically being a non-jury misdemeanor offense, has already ruled against those arguments. C.J. will apparently have a chance to argue for mitigation, but the decree has already been handed down:
(Excerpt) Read more at racket.news ...
The propaganda is strong and unrelenting.
May be location-blocked without a VPN. In essence: AfD bad; no, not only bad, but hyper-NAZI bad; and by the way, the climate is in some sort of existential crisis (couldn’t ever miss that part).
Many years ago there was an American that sold Nazi stuff from the U.S. and the Germans didn’t like it because some Germans were buying through the mail, the guy went on a trip to somewhere like Holland and the Germans nabbed him, and took him to Germany to face charges.
I never saw what became of him.
To accuse the AfD of radicalism, extremist and racist ideas reminds me of the pre-WW2 attacks on Jews as "vermin." The additional assertion from a couple of political types that Germany is currently a stable democracy is absurd, when in the same breath they can espouse silencing 20 percent of a citizenry. The real fascists are beginning to show themselves -- within DasErste and the coalition partners in government.
It was time for us to 'abandon' Germany. The cycle seems to be repeating, and will again be accompanied with economic distress -- ready to be blamed on such as the AfD. Thanks so much for the link. I recall strolling around the grounds there in and around the Bundestag. Schade.
Not that it matters, but it looks like he really, really, really doesn't like Donald Trump.
He sounds like a piece of work. Still, I don’t like anyone being flogged for thought crimes because I am next in line for the same treatment.
Thank you for your nuanced, kind and friendly words :-)
And yes: totalitarianism is back. Here and elsewhere in the world. Unlike me...
Just one more word: this Hopkins guy maybe didn’t know that using any kind of Nazi symbols, even for satirical purposes, is pretty much a no-no here.
My idea - if I could draw reasonably well - would have been to show Lauterbach in a straitjacket, shouting “dannggg danngg” all the time, while wearing a chamberpot (with some absurd floral pattern painted on its side) instead of a hat.
It would have brought the necessary point across quite well.
I would have been afraid to do what Hopkins did either, although - as an autistic, whose great-uncle was offed by the Nazis (he was mentally handicapped as well) - I would certainly be let off the hook in court. On grounds of being “non compos mentis”.
Still it was saddening to see some not-so-friendly types on this thread show their true colors towards my country - and thus to me as well, I am afraid...
Sorry for this little rant, and thanks to everyone who took the time reading it. It’s back to my radiation therapy for me now. Could you pray for me, if this is not asking too much?
All the best for all of you :-)
Thank you for your kind thoughts on America. Prayer sent for your welfare and well being.
I take Ivermectin weekly as a prophylactic against illness including cancers. I give it to my dog monthly rather than pay for the more expensive heart worm medicine -whose active ingredient is Ivermectin. It appears to have helped significantly reduce the size of the dog’s tumors.
National Socialism is a step below Communism. But Communism is OK.
Is Germany reopening the Auschwitz concentration camp?
Praying for you.
Thanks for the link. The sites I’ve used in the past suddenly needed cash xfers to individuals in advance.
With one of my neighbors, we spoke at length about the last century, and when I mentioned I had read "Mein Kampf" he was startled at first. (It was and remains available online.) The new reprint with footnotes and all as "disclaimers" and "explanations" doesn't change the text, when all is said and done. He'd asked why I did. I've read it and Marx' work, as well as the Koran in translation of course, and much of Mao's pomposity. Being informed makes sense when so many pretend to knowledge. In a conversation with an "academic" holding forth on Marx, for example, I;d asked what he, the professor, thought about the value theory of labor. He didn't know, because it turns out he didn't read as much as he said he did. Ditto with Hitler and Goebbels (especially). From them we know without a question that the NSDAP was anti-capitalist. This comes as a surprise to today's "educated" youth tricked into thinking anit-capitalism and more is "cool."
"Lauterbach in a straitjacket" would be quite the thing. An interview with Maischberger (ARD or Eins?) some time back during Covid showed his contempt for the average working man. DItto with Baerbock, and certainly ditto with a few others. As BASF and others move production outside of Germany, the effects will amplify sadly. From Merkel forward, it seems the politicians there are most interested in being trendy, rather than stand on principles.
The Constitution engraved on those glass panels along the Spree near the Bundestag (and oddly so near media offices across the street) seems to be more of a classy graffiti than a living work. Sad. Best wishes to you from our sea island., one among many. Bleib 'gesund, Menes.
Poland might object. And they have the bigger, better equipped army.
Just a technical note: There are no jury trials in Germany. Single judge or panel of judges.
You're most welcome. (sadly)
Thank you all so very much for your prayers and your heart-warming words. All of you ❤️
And I thank you, Justa, for your medical recommendation. May your dear doggie soon make a full recovery 👍from his health problems.
Your good words, all of them, really did brighten a none-too-happy day, on which I couldn‘t do my radiation because of severe pain. God knows what this fit of pain in the back was…but it’s getting better; felt like a kind of pulling.
Still, I believe the good Lord is watching over all of us, and His eye is on the sparrow, so I know He‘s watching me, as my favorite Gospel song has it (it never fails to make me cry).
And, dear Worldtraveler, I couldn‘t be more grateful for your comforting words about my hapless country. Sometimes I am really asking myself whether this age will bring about the end of the German people, as we have existed since Roman times.
Just as I am fearful of what the future might hold for America, my dear America, which has ever been so close to my heart, and for all of Europe and the world.
Will the tyranny of the International Power Elite, this symbiotic mesh of politicians, journalists, scientists and big business, triumph?
Or will He step in to save us?
Many, many questions and concerns from my side…🙏🏻
Are you really sure? That would have been interfering with the criminal justice system of the Netherlands. This would, most likely, have caused a terrible scandal with strong international repercussions and huge damage to many international relationships, I bet.
Furthermore, I recently read an article on the subject of Nazi devotionalia. It is legal to own them and to have them in your house, if you have inherited them from your Family.
Still, it is discouraged to deal with them in a business-like manner (though in fact, prosecutors would have a very hard time ascertaining the provenance of any given item from the NS era). Nonetheless, there was a huge auction of NS paraphernalia in 2019, in Munich, which was widely criticized.
I didn’t think I could find such an old item that I only saw a tiny mention of, but here is the guy, from the SPLC.
I couldn’t understand why there was no uproar about an American being arrested for this and in this way.
“In 1995, Lauck was arrested in Denmark on international warrants for disseminating illegal propaganda in Germany. He was staying at the time with Jonni Hansen, chairman of the neo-Nazi Danish National Socialist Movement. A few days after his arrest, German police raided the homes of 80 Lauck followers, many of them teenagers, and seized weapons, ammunition and illegal literature. Extradited to Germany from Denmark, Lauck was tried and sentenced to a maximum four years in prison for his activities. By the time he emerged from prison in March 1999, Internet-based propaganda had supplanted him, rendering his propaganda work, particularly in terms of smuggling hate materials into Europe, vastly less important.”
https://www.splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/gary-gerhard-lauck
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