Germany

I am just asking a practical question -- does anyone here know if a Burka poses a danger while driving?

I would assume that a person used to it might not be at a risk but I am not sure. Does anyone know for sure?

lagatta wrote:

Germany - Listening to a rendition of the Goldberg variations on Radio-Canada 2 (Espace musique).

Burkas - at least two of the women in the above photo look as if their vision might be obscured, which is a very different matter than the other prohibiations on face coverings.

I think if there is a practical problem then there would be a practical solution. Ie some modification that could prevent obstruction.

I am nervous when I see one issue used to address another.

Merkel Calls For Burqa Ban in Germany

http://www.middleeasteye.net/news/merkel-calls-burqa-ban-germany-1336575334

 

License To Kill: Berlin Finally Admits Hosting Key US Drone War Base

https://youtu.be/9S6MSH52p6o

Merkel Calls To Ban the Burqa in Policy Switch Ahead of Elections

https://youtu.be/_BIof3yUQC8

 

Germany's Potential Burqa Ban Has A Problem: Where Are the Burqas?

https://t.co/ML72q68MH3

"Islamic experts told him they doubt there are any burqas in Germany..."

But there may be an opportunistic politician seeking re-election and a bit of handy identity politics to hot up things and outflank her rightwing opposition...

If this attack means the end of Merkel and her replacement by some far-right demogogue who closes the door to refugees then we'll know who to thank.  Well, not exactly, since they haven't caught him yet, but to the anonymous freedom fighter, our thanks!  This is just about exactly what the world needed right now.

I have to say I'm fed up with this shit. I can't imagine how I'd feel if I was French,Belgian or German. These assholes are fueling a fire which is bad news for anyone who values living in a free society.

I hope they find the suspect and hang him. Sorry,just find myself absolutely fed up with these degenerates.

And who perpetrates the most attacks? Virtually all of it is against people in those communities by racists in the majority population. That was certainly the case when I lived there. It is no justification for this, but it is important to put this in context.

The only question for me is if it was someone who honestly got so frustrated that they snapped, or if it is something more orchestrated. And I think some of those doing this know exactly what effect it will have on a free society. Given that there are elections next year, I'd expect to see more of this, as well as more fake news reports (like the anti-immigrant one last year that influenced state elections).

 

Red-red-green coaltion takes power in Berlin Dec. 8: The ruling Berlin Senate will have four SPD members and three each for the Left and the Greens, plus the SPD mayor. 

"Activists in the Left Party would like to see the Berlin experience happen nationally. They want a similar red-red-green coalition to come out of the national elections later this year, but it is too early to tell whether anything like that is possible."

The last election in Germany produced a red-red-green majority but the SPD were scared of losing moderate support if they allied with the Left Party, so they allied with Merkel. This Berlin government may be the start of a sea change. 

 

Mr. Magoo wrote:

If this attack means the end of Merkel and her replacement by some far-right demogogue who closes the door to refugees then we'll know who to thank.  Well, not exactly, since they haven't caught him yet, but to the anonymous freedom fighter, our thanks!  This is just about exactly what the world needed right now.

Freedom fighter? I'm not usually sarcasm-challenged but I have to assume you're into the Christmas catnip a little early.

Alleged terrorist. It is possible but unlikely that he was a run of the mill secular psychopath with a thing for vehicular mayhem.

lagatta4 wrote:

There is a trial coming up in Germany on this very subject, the so-called "kebab murders" (a very stereotypical label) of small businessmen of immigrant origins, most of them Turkish.

The term was used in the scandal press, and was declared "unword of the year" in 2011.

It is an interesting, if in some cases chilling list. For example "National Liberated Zone (2000)" used by neo-Nazis for areas with such a high rate of violence that it would be a no-go zone for non-whites and leftists.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Un-word_of_the_year

 

Smith, thanks for that reference. Many of those "unwords" also have Nazi roots, using conventionally positive terms such as cleansing to describe mass murder and oppression.In "A Lexicon of Terror" Marguerite Feitlowitz showed how Nazi unwords were deliberately translated or adapted into Spanish by the Argentine dictatorship, alongside as their own "innovations".

I thought I'd put enough scare quotes around the so-called kebab murders, but I guess the term always has to be explained as gutter pressish and discriminatory. Beate Zschäpe, the only surviving member of the Neo-Nazi terrorist cell, is on trial, and is claiming to be a passive accomplice, without sounding convincing to most.

 

I may have mentioned this before, but if you want a really cheery read about people on all sides losing their minds and screwing up (sometimes murderously) over this issue, I recommend this book:

https://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/oct/29/biography.islam

Seriously, I do recommend it, not happy as it is.

Of course the real headspinner in the book isn't Van Gogh. After all, rude jokers get killed all the time. It is the story of Pim Fortruyn, who embraced hatred of immigrants because he didn't want to fight homophobia all over again, and wound up being murdered by an environmentalist and animal rights activist.

 

 

Quote:

Which is (at least part of) the point. If you want to drive other members of your community toward your radical theocratic cause, it helps to spark a massive reaction against them by the majority community.

Agreed.  And similarly, if it looks like maybe members of your community have been mollified or co-opted by reasonable and somewhat progressive policies, you'd best turn that around as quickly as possible.

Otherwise, why Germany?  Which EU country led the way by pledging to take in what was probably more refugees than was practical for them?  And which other countries said "screw that; we're building a big electrified fence to keep out those dirty foreigners"?  So, ya, better punish Germany for trying.

NDPP wrote:

Linh Dinh: Deutschland On the Eve of 2017

http://linhdinhphotos.blogspot.ca/2016/12/deutschland-on-eve-of-2017_24....

"Welcome to the madhouse, a country suffering from dementia and denial, and therefore poised for big, big trouble..."

What was the purpose of posting this racist article?

 

I'm also sick of expressions like "country suffering from dementia", which is a disease.

Germany's 'Wise Men' Urge Lower Wages For Refugees

http://www.dw.com/en/germanys-wise-men-urge-lower-wages-for-refugees/a-1...

"Berlin's top economic advisers have recommended suspending the country's minimum wage requirements to make refugees more attractive to employers..."

German Government Plans Propaganda Agency in Response to 'Fake News'

http://wsws.org/en/articles/2017/01/09/ger2-j09.html

"For weeks, the German and international public sphere has been bombarded with a campaign against so-called 'fake news'."

 

German Interior Minister De Maiziere Calling For Police State Powers

http://wsws.org/en/articles/2017/01/09/germ-j09.html

"Social tensions are already at the breaking point. While a tiny minority is enriching itself fabulously at the top of society, working conditions for the vast majority are becoming ever-harder and incomes are declining."

6079_Smith_W wrote:

This is the same party which swept state elections after a Russian TV station published a false report alleging sexual assaults by immigrants in Berlin.

Do you mean the Baden-Württemberg state election in March 2016 where they won 15% of the vote and 23 out of 139 seats?

So can you tell which if of these reports are the false reports of the Russian TV station? They are all from before the March elections.

Quote:

The migrant-led sexual assaults and robbery sprees spread to five more cities,
including Berlin.

In the town of Bornheim, male asylum seekers have now been banned from a
public swimming pool after women complained they were being sexually
harassed.

And a carnival parade in Rheinberg, which would have passed a migrant shelter,
has been cancelled over security fears.

Berlin was already facing a financial crisis, owing £45billion, when it was
ordered to take its share of asylum seekers and economic migrants.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/archives/news/152922/refugee-crisis-berlin-so-s...

Quote:

A mob of asylum seekers from Afghanistan assaulted three teenage girls at a shopping center in the northern German city of Kiel. The attack — which occurred over two-hours on the evening of February 25, and mirrored the mass assaults of German women in Cologne on New Year's Eve — shows, once again, that public spaces in Germany are becoming increasingly perilous for women and children.

Police reports show that sexual violence in Germany has skyrocketed since Chancellor Angela Merkel allowed more than one million mostly male migrants from Africa, Asia and the Middle East into the country. But the crimes are being played down by German authorities, apparently to avoid fueling anti-immigration sentiments.

https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/7557/germany-rape-migrants-crisis

Quote:

Sex assaults were reported in European countries on New Year's Eve. Hundreds of women in Cologne were reportedly robbed, threatened and sexually assaulted by small groups of aggressive men, allegedly mostly of Arab and North African origin. Several similar incidents were reported on the same day in Frankfurt, Dusseldorf and Berlin.

Same attacks were also reported in Finland, Belgium, Austria, Denmark and Sweden.

Europe is struggling to find a solution to the large refugee crisis, with hundreds of thousands of refugees fleeing conflict-torn countries in the Middle East and North Africa in search of safety and refuge in Europe. The EU border agency Frontex detected over 1.55 million illegal border crossings in 2015.

https://sputniknews.com/trend/europe_migrants_sex_assaults_2016/

Quote:

Germany’s police and politicians have faced increasing anger in the wake of the New Year’s sex attack spree in Cologne, but much of the public’s ire has been directed at a group more comfortable asking questions than answering them: the news media.

After largely ignoring the story for several days after the attacks, much of the national media appeared reluctant to explore possible links between the attacks and the recent influx of refugees. Some commentators went so far as to suggest it was unlikely asylum seekers were even involved.

“In all likelihood, the people behind this have been here for a long time,” left-leaning daily Süddeutsche Zeitung declared in its lead editorial a week after the attacks.

In other words, just as with the terror attacks in Paris, the culprits in Cologne were most likely homegrown “foreigners.” The real problem, the paper concluded, was likely “failed integration” — German society’s failure to assimilate foreigners.

Just hours after the article appeared, a police report on the assaults surfaced, revealing that many of the suspects were, in fact, refugees.

The German media’s timidity on the Cologne sex assault coverage has presented right-wing agitators with a useful “told you so” moment.

http://www.politico.eu/article/cologne-puts-germany-lying-media-press-on...

I think it's laughable to blame the Russian media for the German election results. Right up there with blaming them for Trump's win. Tin foil hat level conspiracy theories.

 

 

I posted it just upthread k, which is why I didn't figure I had to again. It is at #33. And yes, I mentioned exploitation of the other attacks too.

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-germany-russia-idUSKCN0VA31O

Quote:

The teenager's case blew up into a diplomatic row last week when Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov accused the German authorities of "sweeping problems under the rug". Berlin warned Moscow not to exploit the case "for political propaganda".

The Berlin public prosecutor's office has since said the girl spent the 30 hours with people she knew, and that a medical examination had shown she had not been raped.

"The refugee crisis and the Lisa case have allowed (Moscow) to exploit more strongly groups like Russian Germans, and to play with Germans' angst and insecurities," said Stefan Meister of the German Council on Foreign Relations, a think tank.

The case has provoked outrage among Berlin's Russian community and Russian media have reported extensively on it.

Russians protested in Bavaria at the weekend, after about 700 people had demonstrated in front of Merkel's office, some holding banners reading "Our children are in danger" and "Today my child, tomorrow yours".

And I know information is information, but The Gatestone Institute? Really?  It is a right-wing anti-muslim hate group. Of course they are going to spin the situation like that.

http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/gatestone_institute/

In part, kropotkin, because the Russian foreign minister was himself involved in the fake story, which was circulated extensively, in Russian media.

Are they different than other anti-muslim hate groups like the gatestone institute who also want to attack the government by demonizing immigrants and refugees? Not really, IMO.

But my actual point was that this same far right anti-immigrant party which benefitted from that propaganda campaign now wants to build closer ties with Russia, and is criticizing German holocaust memorials as symbols of shame.

Not a big surprise, considering similar connections, and funding, with other far right European parties like France's National Front. But there it is in black and white.

 

 

Here's a wikipedia page with links to most of the stories.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criminal_case_of_Lisa_F.

 

Perhaps it wouldn't have drawn quite so much attention if the media in question didn't have a record of lying in their news stories.

And if the Russian foreign minister hadn't jumped on it, much in the same way he jumped on an accusation about RT's bank accounts in England. Also a story that evaporated into nothing.

And if popup demonstrations hadn't also happened to go along with this false news story.

But to touch on your last question, no I am not just making this up. The broader issue is serious enough that the European parliament is taking it on:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/eu-approves-resolution-to...

 

Propaganda Crusade: EU Getting Boost Before Big Election Season

https://youtu.be/biCy88IMjO0

"The EU is expanding a task force aimed at fighting alleged Russian propaganda."