Topic: POLITIK - on January 10, 2017 at 4:53:00 PM CET
Emperor Trump! How the President-Elect Acts Just Like a Roman Ruler
In the middle of Rome, just next to the tomb of the Emperor Augustus, there’s a high wall engraved with hundreds of lines, written in Latin. This is the Res Gestae Divi Augusti—”The Deeds of Divine Augustus,” a mini-autobiography composed by the Emperor before his death in 14 AD. Augustus, the first of the Roman emperors, wasn’t lacking in self-confidence. Here’s a taste of what he wrote: “Twice I triumphed with an ovation, and three times I enjoyed a curule triumph and 21 times I was named. I paid to the Roman plebs 300 sesterces each from my father’s will.
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Topic: POLITIK - on January 10, 2017 at 4:52:00 PM CET
Thinking About Fascism
The 2016 presidential election made me think about 1933 and Hitler's rise to power. I've known that he came to power through constitutional means and then used that power from the inside to destroy a constitutional system of government. This seemed like a good time to better understand the way that someone who was a megalomaniac, not taken seriously by elites, brought to power by pandering to people's fears, could take control of the levers of power. I just read Robert O. Paxton's The Anatomy of Fascism. For me it helped clarify the tasks before us. In discussing Hitler's and Mussolini's rise to power Paxton says it is important to look at the means through which these fascists translated an ability to mobilize popular discontent into an almost unlimited ability to control the machineries of governmental power.
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Topic: POLITIK - on January 10, 2017 at 4:47:00 PM CET
Swaziland or Switzerland? FBI silent about peculiarities in Russian hack documentation
There are several peculiarities in the technical documentation that FBI has laid out as documentation for Russian hacker attacks on the USA.
The documentation given by FBI and Homeland Security in an attempt to prove Russian hacking of American politicians, organizations and businesses are marked by several deviations that seem to be trivial typing errors. This is what a check made by the Danish IT website Version2 of the attached IP address lists in the report by the authorities shows. The report lists 876 IP addresses that the American authorities believe Russian hacker groups used in connection with attacks on the USA in recent years.
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Topic: POLITIK - on January 8, 2017 at 10:37:00 PM CET
Russland soll draußen bleiben
Jeder darf mit jedem: Im EU-Parlament ist dem Zusammenschluss von Parteien zu Fraktionen kaum Grenzen gesetzt - das wollen die Konservativen nun ändern. Auch die Einflussnahme von Ländern wie Russland soll unterbunden werden.
Die Fraktion der Europäischen Volkspartei im Europaparlament (EVP) will radikale Gruppierungen in Europa künftig effektiver bekämpfen und schärfer gegen Fremdfinanzierung europafeindlicher Parteien, etwa durch Russland, vorgehen. "Wir sollten die Regeln für die Parteienfinanzierung auf Ebene der EU weiter verschärfen", sagte EVP-Fraktionschef Manfred Weber (CSU) dem SPIEGEL. Parteien sollen demnach künftig weniger EU-Finanzierung erhalten, wenn Mitglieder oder Partnerbündnisse von autokratischen Regimen mitfinanziert werden.
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Topic: POLITIK - on January 8, 2017 at 10:34:00 PM CET
Trump said he had $315 million in debt. He left out $1.5 billion.
A new report reveals the breathtaking scope of Trump’s conflicts of interest.
Trump filed documents with the FEC over the summer that revealed he owed at least $315 million to ten entities. This debt, some of which is personally guaranteed by him, was a clear conflict. As president, Trump will be responsible for regulating entities that he also owes money to. Worse, these debts are frequently renegotiated, giving these companies leverage over Trump in the regulatory process.
A report this afternoon from the Wall Street Journal, however, revealed that Trump’s disclosure was the tip of the iceberg. The FEC required Trump only to report debt from entities he fully controls. The disclosure left out “more than $1.5 billion lent to partnerships that are 30%-owned by him.” That debt has been securitized and is owed to at least 150 financial entities.
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Topic: POLITIK - on January 8, 2017 at 10:31:00 PM CET
The Soviet Union Is Gone, But It’s Still Collapsing
And 5 other unlearned lessons from leading experts about modern Russia and the death of an empire.
The collapse of the Soviet Union and the creation of 15 new countries in December 1991 remade the world overnight. The Cold War and the threat of nuclear annihilation disappeared, and democracy and free-markets spread across the now defeated Soviet empire. Of course, 25 years later, events didn’t exactly unfold as initially predicted. The forces of globalization have mutated former Soviet countries in unseen ways, emboldening autocrats and entrenching corruption across the region. Meanwhile, the geopolitical animosities of the Cold War are resurgent, with relations between Moscow and Washington at their lowest point since the Soviet-era arms race. The creation of new countries, meanwhile, has given rise to nationalism and autocracies that are shaping foreign-policy decisions and altering societies in unforeseen ways. Yet, the significance of this quarter-century of change is still not fully understood. Why did the Soviet Union really collapse and what lessons have policymakers missed? How is history repeating itself across the lands of the former superpower? In search of answers, Foreign Policy asked six experts with intimate knowledge of the region from their time in finance, academia, journalism, and policymaking. Here are the unlearned lessons from the collapse of the Soviet Union.
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Topic: POLITIK - on August 16, 2016 at 4:28:00 PM CEST
TV-Physiker Lesch Ziel von AfD-Hassmails
Harald Lesch zerpflückte die Thesen der AfD über Klimawandel und wurde Opfer eines Shitstorms München – Fragen wie "Wie entsteht etwas aus dem Nichts"? oder "Gibt es Zufall?" beantwortet Harald Lesch mit den Lösungsangeboten der Natur- und Kulturwissenschaft. Nachdem der TV-Physiker in einem Video der ZDF-Reihe "Terra X" Aussagen der AfD zum Klimawandel auseinandernahm, erhielt er laut sueddeutsche.de "sehr hässliche Hassmails". Und diese unterzieht er in einem zweiten Video einer ebenso gründlichen Analyse. Lesch prüfte "das AfD-Programm wissenschaftlich". Sachlich geht er den Aussagen über den Klimawandel auf den Grund und entlarvt sie größtenteils als Humbug.
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Topic: POLITIK - on August 14, 2016 at 4:36:00 PM CEST
200 Turkish journalists blacklisted from parliament
One of the most vital duties of a journalist — in any democracy — is to report on the day-to-day operations of a country’s parliament. Journalism schools devote much time to teaching the deciphering budgets and legal language, and how to report fairly on political divides and debates. I recalled these studies when I read an email Wednesday morning from an Ankara-based colleague. I smiled bitterly. The message included a link to an article published in the Gazete Duvar, which informed that 200 journalists had been barred from entering the home of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey. Security controls at the two entrances of the failed-coup-damaged building had been intensified and journalists were checked against a list as they tried to enter. The reason for the bans? Most of those who were blocked worked for shuttered or seized outlets alleged to be affiliated with the Gülenist movement.
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Topic: POLITIK - on August 12, 2016 at 5:35:00 PM CEST
Wie Edward Snowden zum russischen Spion gemacht wird
Edward Snowden soll ein russischer Spion sein, behauptet Verfassungsschutzpräsident Maaßen. Doch Beweise gibt es dafür nicht.
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Topic: POLITIK - on August 9, 2016 at 5:54:00 PM CEST
Satire geglaubt: Nutzer befürchten, dass Merkel AfD gegründet hat
Mehrere Nutzer fragen direkt bei AfD-Spitzenpolitikern wie Frauke Petry nach; Gerücht beruht auf "Postillon"-Satire Das deutsche Satire-Portal "Der Postillon" sorgt wieder einmal für Aufregung in sozialen Netzwerken. Die Plattform hatte im April gescherzt, dass "in Wahrheit" die deutsche Bundeskanzlerin Angela Merkel (CDU) die Merkel-kritische rechtspopulistische AfD gegründet habe. Merkels Plan sei es, durch die AfD jene Wähler abzuholen, deren politische Einstellung "rechts von CDU/CSU" angesiedelt ist. Die "Postillon"-Satire, die im Stil eines investigativen Berichts von Der Spiegel oder Die Zeit aufgebaut ist, berichtet außerdem von "geheimen Dokumenten" des Innenministeriums und SMS von Merkel an Petry.
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Topic: POLITIK - on August 5, 2016 at 5:21:00 PM CEST
Law, Order and the Wall: Would Trump and Pence Fuel the Drug War?
Writing about what drug policy might look like under a Trump administration is not easy. Donald Trump's views on drugs have changed radically over the years, and the Republican nominee's rambling statements on the subject suggest that they are shaped by gut reactions and political opportunism, not ideology or a deep understanding of social currents and medical science. Trump's vice-presidential pick, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence, has a clearer track record on drug policy because he has actually held political office, but some of his positions are so archaic that the Trump campaign may wish to keep them off the national stage.
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Topic: POLITIK - on August 1, 2016 at 4:36:00 PM CEST
The Psychopathology of Donald Trump
Does Donald Trump only say crazy things, or does he say crazy things because he actually is crazy? In a speech delivered on the third day of the Democratic National Convention, former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg openly questioned the GOP candidate’s sanity on prime-time television. More importantly, if less sensationally, the issue of Trump’s emotional stability has also been raised by a growing number of influential and highly respected mental-health practitioners. They have done so out of a sense of urgency, even in the face of a code of conduct promulgated by the American Psychiatric Association that cautions psychiatrists against making public statements about public figures whom they have not formally evaluated.
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