Trump DNI Ric Grenell SO MAD Germany Arresting German (Alleged, Attempted) Terrorists
Die Hard is so a Christmas movie.
There sure are times when we'd rather not be right. Like yesterday, for instance, when we brought you the story of Germany's arrests of 25 people accused of a far-right plot to overthrow the elected German government and install a 71-year-old pretend monarch as Kaiser, to restore the Second Reich (1871-1918), which they must have figured would get them better press than trying to bring back the Third one.
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At the end of that story, we wrote, "Given the deep affection of the American Right for European authoritarians, we won't be the least bit surprised if the arrests in Germany become a talking point in US far-right politics."
Then last night, Donald Trump's former ambassador to Germany and also Trump's acting Director of National Intelligence Richard "Ric" Grenell showed up on Newsmax to say he was "extremely skeptical" because a TV news crew went along for at least one of the high-profile arrests, so maybe it was all a set-up to discredit perfectly ordinary critics of the government? You know, just like January 6 was merely a tour of the Capitol by people who wished to speak with their representatives and perhaps execute them.
As we've noted, German prosecutors laid out a detailed set of accusations against the group, which allegedly planned a violent attack on Germany's parliament, the Bundestag, as well as attacks on the power grid to throw the country into chaos. Those arrested included former members of the German military, some of whom had served in special forces. Prosecutors said the group had even designated certain members to take various posts in the post-coup government, had they gotten that far. One of the people arrested had been trying to recruit police officers to the cause.
The BBC reports that the group considered Germany's post-WWII government illegitimate and that it had ties to COVID-19 deniers and other conspiracy theorists, including the US "Sovereign Citizen" movement, which rejects most government. German Interior Minister Nancy Faeser said they were "driven by fantasies of violent overturn and conspiracy ideologies."
So sure, we can see why American Newsmax viewers might be inclined to believe Grenell's speculation that they were just ordinary folks who disagreed with their government.
“Trump’s former Ambassador to Germany Grenell says he is “extremely skeptical” of the arrests of 25 members of a right wing terrorist group in Germany, equating it to J6 where the govt was just targeting people with “dissenting voices who didn’t like the direction of the govt.””
— Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦 (@Ron Filipkowski 🇺🇦) 1670445079
Grenell falsely claimed that "all the reporters in Germany were embedded" on the raid, although there were actually at least 130 locations searched or raided, with 3,000 police officers deployed all over Germany — not just the one raid that's been circulating on YouTube.
He insisted that "the people who were raided" were merely "people in the opposition who had dissenting voices, who didn't like the direction of the German government." Which, technically, is true of any terrorist group. He may have had in mind the one former Bundestag member arrested, Birgit Malsack-Winkemann, who belonged to Germany's far-right, Neo-Nazi-adjacent AFD party (actual Naziism is banned in Germany).
Grenell was careful to say that if anyone had really broken any laws, like owning illegal firearms, then of course they should expect to be prosecuted, but he was aghast that these Good Germans were being accused of terrorism simply for opposing the government. He was also unhappy that the nice "Reichsbürger" (Citizens of the Reich) folks had been described as trying to "undermine democracy — and how many times have we heard that?"
Notably, Grenell didn't address any of the plans that German prosecutors have said were being pursued by the coup plotters, instead sticking to the suggestion that they were simply folks who happened to disagree with their government. If anyone's a terrorist, he suggested, it's the German government and police, who are just as bad as American Democrats , even.
The government begins to have quick, swift, strong reaction simply because they created and hyped up this problem that I don't believe exists to the extent that they keep hyping it. Certainly we know here in the United States, we're very skeptical of "coup" talk or "undermining democracy" or "enemies of democracy" — right, all of those terms immediately make many conservatives say, "OK, well what are you really trying to do by hyping this problem?
Well that's just logic, then. The January 6 defendants were all railroaded for doing nothing (as long as you ignore all the evidence and their convictions by juries ), so clearly, the German coup plotters were simply planning some innocent tourism, too.
No wonder the Germans couldn't wait to see Grenell leave when he was the US ambassador!
In conclusion, we'd like to say we wish wingnuts wouldn't live down to our low expectations quite so predictably, just like Kraftwerk.
No, wait, we like them . Now is the time Ve dance!
[ Crooks and Liars/ hat tip to "Tom Servo is my Spirit Bot" on Twitter /BBC ]
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That's a toughie, as I believe Chump is beneath contempt.
What's the slogan of the reunited Germany?
"Let's make it one out of three!"