Day: July 2, 2024

Today we celebrated Israel’s Independence Day in Baku with speeches from Ambassador @GeorgeDeek and Minister of Economy @MikayilJabbarov, emphasizing the strong relations between our countries.
We were also honored to inaugurate the Azerbaijan Israel Alumni Association… pic.twitter.com/1o8v1dYW21

— Israel in Azerbaijan (@IsraelinAZ) July 2, 2024

Excellent panel discussion in Tbilisi on ‘Navigating New Geopolitical Realities in #Georgia & the #SouthCaucasus with @NathalieTocci #GhiaNodia ( think tanker legend) Franziska Smolnik @SWP_EEE with @meistefan1 moderating

Co-organized by @dgapev @GIP_ge pic.twitter.com/i2XzLEnMBN

— Milan Nic (@MilanN_inBerlin) July 2, 2024

(JTA) — A German court has fined a prominent far-right leader for once again using a phrase associated with the Nazis, as Germany’s growing far-right flank shows an increasing comfort with invoking Nazi-aligned phrases and ideas.

Björn Höcke, a leader of the Alternative for Germany party, or AfD, was ordered to pay €16,900 (roughly $18,000) for chanting the first two words of the slogan “Everything For Germany,” or “Alles für Deutschland,” in front of a pub crowd in December, and goading the crowd to finish it.

It was the second time in a few short months that Höcke, the party leader of the state of Thuringia in what was once East Germany, had been fined for using the phrase. In May, judges fined him around $13,000 for an earlier use of the phrase in 2021. Nazi stormtroopers had engraved the phrase “Everything for Germany” on their daggers.

AfD gained seats in the recent elections for the European Parliament, alarming local Jewish leaders.

During his first trial, Höcke, a former history teacher with a track record of promoting historical revisionism around the Nazi regime, had claimed he was unfamiliar with the origins of the phrase, which the court doubted. The second time, the judge said, Höcke appeared to display no remorse and even showed some glee over getting the crowd to finish the phrase for him.

In court, he has questioned the anti-Nazi laws that were instituted in Germany in order to prevent a resurgence of the ideology after the Holocaust, stating, “Do we want to ban the German language because the Nazis spoke German?”

Höcke was first elected in 2013, and has become a lightning-rod figure in Germany as his ideas — and his party — have become ascendant. The provocateur once faced expulsion from the AfD after calling the Berlin Holocaust memorial a “monument of shame” in 2017, an incident that led an artist to place a replica of the monument outside of Höcke’s home. He also faced accusations from a German sociologist that he had authored articles for a neo-Nazi website under a pseudonym, and subsequently refused to declare that the pen name wasn’t his.

But Höcke loyalists soon rose to key leadership roles within the AfD, ensuring that the populist party — which has been winning elections nationwide — would continue to back him going forward. A German court has ruled that calling Höcke a fascist is not defamatory but a “value judgment based on facts.”

Germany is not the only European country dealing with Nazi links to contemporary politics. A member of France’s far-right coalition party this week withdrew from her race prior to the upcoming second round of National Assembly elections after her opponent circulated a photo of her wearing a Nazi hat. Her party had enjoyed a healthy first-round showing in the vote. The anti-immigration right is gaining ground across the continent, including in recent elections for the European Parliament and in the Netherlands.

The post Far-right German politician fined again for using a banned Nazi phrase appeared first on The Forward.

After the Supreme Court’s bizarro yet mixed ruling yesterday on presidential immunity, Donald Trump decided that he was going to use the ruling to magically get his existing New York criminal conviction overturned. How would this work, given that his actions in that trial (cooking his books to hide an affair before he was even in office) clearly don’t fall under official business?

It’s plainly obvious that this isn’t going to get Trump anywhere. But interestingly enough, Manhattan DA Alvin Bragg announced today he was fine with slightly delaying Trump’s sentencing hearing so that Judge Merchan could indeed rule that Trump’s actions weren’t done in an official capacity. Sure enough, the sentencing hearing is has now been moved to September.

The media is already spinning this as Trump having magically delayed his sentencing hearing to his liking (nevermind that it came from Bragg). But in reality, this doesn’t help Trump at all. He has zero chance of his case being thrown out. All he’s doing is pushing his sentencing hearing into the height of the general election in September. And given the bad faith manner in which he’s handling this, Merchan is probably now more likely to give him a prison sentence.

So good job, Donald Trump. You probably just increased the odds that you’re going to prison. It’s a good reminder that Trump is really bad at this stuff. Donate to Palmer Report

The post Donald Trump’s sentencing hearing rescheduled, and his odds of going to prison probably just went up appeared first on Palmer Report.