GERMAN POLITICS TURNS VIOLENT

Franziska Giffey, a prominent Berlin politician, was violently assaulted and suffered injuries to her head and neck. (https://apnews.com/article/germany-election-violence-eu-4d09d90a6cc380aacf62ca4a69af1a64)

Latest attack on a German politician stokes concern ahead of elections

German politics is getting violent. This week, Berlin’s top economic official was attacked, sustaining head and neck injuries. A 74-year-old man was later arrested. Although the motive is unknown, it was the latest episode in a rising tide of political violence as Germany gears up for European Parliament elections this summer.

Last week, the top European Parliament candidate of the governing Social Democrat Party was beaten unconscious in the eastern city of Dresden while campaigning. A Green Party operative was assaulted there as well. Several teens with ties to far-right ideologies are suspected in both cases.

Statistics show rising violence against German politicians. In 2023, there were nearly 2,800 physical or verbal attacks, twice as many as in 2019, when a neo-Nazi assassination of conservative lawmaker Walter Lübcke stunned the country.

Last year’s violence included about 500 attacks on politicians from the far-right Alternative for Deutschland, or AFD, and more than 1,200 on members of the center-left Green Party.

Why now? The problem has deep roots, according to Jan Techau, a Berlin-based Europe expert at Eurasia Group. Establishment parties’ long-standing failure to address big issues like immigration, schooling, or the economy, he says, opened the way for more radical and violent forces on both the left and right. “What we see is an overall more charged, political atmosphere where this kind of violence becomes more legitimate.”  (Gzero Signal, 5/9/2024)

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SEN GRAHAM PREDICTS TRUMP’S ACTIONS ON ILLEGALS

Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) warned in a recent hearing that President Trump will not be lenient on illegal immigrants, including beneficiaries of the DACA program, unless they offer a “unique benefit” to America.

The US Senate Committee on the Judiciary held a hearing on Wednesday called “Dream Deferred:  The Urgent Need to Protect Immigrant Youth” that emphasized the need for passing legal protections for noncitizens brought into the United States as children.  “Dreamers” can secure work permits and avoid deportation under the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.  However, DACA does not offer green cards and there is presently no path to citizenship through the initiative.  During the hearing, Mr. Graham said that “if President Trump wins, I predict, I’m not going to speak for him, but unless you really truly have a unique benefit to the country or an unusual humanitarian situation, you’re going to be kicked out.  There are millions of people here who have just been waved into the coutry,” he sad.  (Naveen Athrappully, The Epoch Times, 5/10/2024)

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ANTI-WHITE ATTACK AVERTED

Federal prosecutors have charged a recently discharged US marine with making threats to attack white people in a mass shooting.

On Monday, the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey announced the arrest of Joshua Cobb, 23, on a single-count indictment of transmitting an interstate threat over the Internet. According to a complaint filed in the case, Mr. Cobb authored a social media post on Dec. 17, 2022, indicating his interest in inflicting mayhem “on the white community.”

The author of the Dec. 17, 2022, social media post states, “I want to cause mayhem on the white community.  The reason I specifically want to target white people is because as a black male, they will NEVER understand my struggles.”  (Ryan Morgan, The Epoch Times, 5/15/2024)

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POSSIBLE OTHER NATIONS MAY ENTER UKRAINE

As Russia’s current offensive gains momentum in Ukraine, politicians in Berlin are debating the merits of deploying European soldiers on Ukrainian territory. Last week, Lithuania announced that it was ready to send military trainers to the war zone without delay and was only waiting for a request from Kiev. Estonia has said that it is prepared to demonstrate military presence of its own on Ukrainian territory as part of a hoped-for “coalition of the willing.” Its focus would be on air defence capabilities. In Germany, the direct deployment of German troops is, with the exception of a few hardliners in Berlin, not publicly advocated. This is partly due to the important state elections upcoming next autumn. However, politicians from the CDU, FDP and Greens are backing intervention proposals that envisage the stationing of air defence systems on Polish and Romanian territory that can shoot down Russian offensive weapons over Ukraine. Warnings that this step would be tantamount to entering the war are being played down. At the same time, discussions are taking place on post-ceasefire scenarios, which might see the deployment of EU or NATO troops in Ukraine. (German Foreign Policy, 5/14/2024)

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AUTIISM – “Different diets can help with autism.”

When Matthew Hirning was diagnosed with autism, specialists told Terri Hirning that her 4-year-old son had a genetic condition, there was nothing she could do about it, and that he’d need to live in a group home as an adult because he’d never be independent.  “I remember thinking, “I don’t know how, but that’s not going to be his story.  That’s not an answer for what’s going on here,” Ms. Hirning told The Epoch Times.

She’d already noticed when he ate certain foods he’d have trouble sleeping, intense sensory meltdowns, and virtually no eye contact.  He also suffered from limited vocabulary and chronic constipation – at times he wouldn’t even respond to his name.

 Both intuition and critical reasoning pointed to diet as an easy entry point to symptom resolution.

“We had a dear friend who was an occupational therapist specializing in autism and she mentioned red dye and MSG [monosodium glutamate, a flavor enhancer] . . . I started to Just kind of dip my toe in the world that was biomedical intervention,” Ms. Hirning said.

The Hirnings learned that Matthew had a disrupted gut microbiome – the community of bacteria, viruses, and fungi that work synergistically to create metabolites that modulate neurotransmitters.  That gut-brain connection can explain mood, behavior, and overall functionality changes that come through diet.

Testing also revealed Matthew had a range of food allergies. With diet modifications tracked in a food journal, Matthew reversed his symptoms of autism.   (“Different diets can help with autism,” Amy Denney, The Epoch Times, 5/15/2024)   

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BRIEFLY

• Fifty years ago today, formal impeachment proceedings for President Richard Nixon began on Capitol Hill. Nixon resigned before the House of Representatives could actually vote to impeach him, which, at the time, had only occurred once before in US history. We’ve since upped the pace of impeachments (three since 1998!) — but the Senate has still never convicted and removed a president.  (5/9/2024 Gzero)

• I was once dined by a Soviet news commentator who told me how his bosses wanted to take over control of the UK bit by bit. They wanted to place their sympathizers, (whether comrades, ideologues, stooges or useful idiots) in three UK institutions. What were the revolutionary targets for the USSR? The Foreign Office, Parliament and the BBC.   (David Heilbron Price from eurDemocracy, 5/9/2024)

• While no Arab nation will accept Gazan refugees, Australia’s Labor Government has no such reservations, welcoming them into Australia with only hours of vetting.  (Roger Cool, Politicom, Australia, 5/7/2024)

• THE Albanese Government is trying to cover up rapid demographic changes for fear of a backlash. It fears people will start asking questions if they see their country changing so rapidly.  (Henry Jom, Politicom, 5/7/2024)

• Volodymyr Zelensky has cancelled all of his foreign trips, following a renewed Russian offensive in Kharkiv, in north-east Ukraine. (The Epoch Times, 5/15/2024)

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THINK ABOUT IT

The Slovakian Prime Minister Robert Fico was the victim of an attempted assassination earlier today (Wednesday, May 15).

The news this morning (Eastern time) made me think of this verse in the book of James.  James reminds us, “Now listen, you who say, ‘Today or tomorrow we will go to this or that city, spend a year there, carry on business and make money.  Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow.’ (James 4:13-14)

The last few months have surely brought this to mind – that we can make plans but suddenly everything changes.  October 7^th was one of those days.  Trips to Israel or somewhere else in the Middle East were suddenly “on hold.”

It was an assassination in Sarajevo in 1914 that led directly to World War I starting a month or so after the shots were fired.

This assassination is a part of the classic struggle between Russia and Europe.  Robert Fico is the leader of the pro-Russian part of the government.  Another struggle along the same lines is being fought in Georgia.  It’s too easy to say Russia is behind everything.

At this point in time, we don’t know if Robert Fico will live or die.  But in 1914, events kept moving fast until the world was in flames.