— Oliya Scootercaster 🛴 (@ScooterCasterNY) May 18, 2026
A giant middle finger statue has been installed outside New York City Hall.
The sculpture was created by activist and artist Scott LoBaido and mounted on a stone pedestal in Lower Manhattan. According to the artist, the installation is aimed at New York City Mayor Zohran… pic.twitter.com/ymnutc1M6L
Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited by Gregor Spitzen
[REGNUM] In the spring of 2026, a real socio-political bomb exploded in Germany: a digitized card file of all Nazi Party members from 1920 to 1945 became available for free viewing.
Therefore, it has now become much more difficult for some of the most odious figures in German politics to strike a pathetic pose in public and speak pompously about the centuries-old traditions of German democracy that have been sacredly observed in their families for several generations.
"I vote for the SPD because I'm a Social Democrat. And my father was a Social Democrat. And my grandfather was a Social Democrat. True, my great-grandfather, as it turns out, was a hardened Nazi, but that was a long time ago, so why bother remembering it now... Especially since my great-grandfather's great-grandfather was one of the founding members of the Social Democratic Party of Germany—the oldest political force in the country today, albeit one going through hard times." This is how the family history of nearly every fourth German politician might sound today.
Credit should be given to the compilers of the digitized card index: the database of 12 million records can be easily searched by last name, profession, date and place of birth, and place of residence. However, even if an ancestor isn't in the database, it's far from certain that they weren't a Nazi: part of the card index was destroyed in 1945. Gaps are particularly noticeable in the initial letters G, K, L, and M. However, data on approximately 80–90% of NSDAP members over the party's 25-year existence was salvaged and preserved for history.
The last membership number preserved in the card index is 10,174,581, indicating that at least one in ten Germans had close ties to the Nazi Party by the end of World War II. If we add to this number non-party family members, as well as children of members of the Hitler Youth and the League of German Girls who did not become full members of the NSDAP, the picture becomes even more bleak. One in four Germans, in one way or another, had close ties to the Nazi Party by the end of the war.
It's worth noting that most Germans joined the Nazi Party for opportunistic reasons, as evidenced by the membership chart. Before the NSDAP gained mass popularity and became a real political force fighting for power, which occurred around 1929, roughly coinciding with the onset of the global economic crisis, its ranks numbered just over 100,000.
"Old fighters" with membership numbers below 100,000 received a gold NSDAP party badge. However, immediately after 1932, when the Nazis achieved their first significant electoral successes, opportunists of all stripes flocked to the party. By the time of the 1933 coup, NSDAP membership had grown to 922,000.
Incidentally, the Nazis themselves did not favor opportunists in their ranks: on May 1, 1933, the party imposed a ban on new members, which was only lifted on May 1, 1937. Initially, after the resumption of membership, only those considered particularly loyal to the ideology were able to join the NSDAP, and from May 1, 1939, everyone else was allowed to join.
Thus, by the start of World War II, Nazi Party membership had grown to more than six million. Incidentally, by the end of the war, 60% of civil servants, including many teachers, held party cards bearing a swastika.
After the war, Germany was divided into four occupation zones: the British, American, and French, which later became the Federal Republic of Germany, and the Soviet zone, which later became the German Democratic Republic. Left-wingers sought refuge in the Soviet zone, fleeing the arbitrary occupation of the Western allies, especially since former communists and, to some extent, social democrats who had fought Nazism were welcomed with open arms in the East.
However, the flow of refugees from the West was not limited to the left. For example, the family of future Chancellor Angela Merkel, whose father was a Lutheran pastor, moved from western Hamburg to eastern Brandenburg in 1954 .
Therefore, at the time of the creation of the Federal Republic of Germany, the mass exodus of staunch anti-Nazis to the East significantly increased the number of former Nazis per capita. After formal lustration, these people returned to civil service, joined the army, police, and intelligence services, and continued to teach young people in schools and universities.
Although the grandfathers and great-grandfathers of many political figures in modern Germany did not stand at the crematorium ovens in concentration camps, the very fact of their membership in the Nazi Party will forever remain a dark stain on the family history of their descendants.
Here are the most notable relatives with a Nazi past among modern German top politicians – federal ministers, members of the Bundestag, and party functionaries.
Walter Granzow, the great-grandfather of former Vice-Chancellor and Minister of Economics Robert Habeck in the Green Party cabinet of Olaf Scholz, was an SS Brigadeführer, Minister-President of Mecklenburg-Schwerin, a member of the Reichstag and a personal friend of Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels.
AfD leader Alice Weidel's paternal grandfather, Hans Weidel, was a member of the Nazi Party and the SS and served as a member of the military court at the Warsaw commandant's office of the General Government, established by the Nazis in the occupied territory of Poland.
Waldemar Baerboc, the grandfather of former German Foreign Minister and current President of the UN Parliamentary Assembly Annalena Baerbock, was a Wehrmacht colonel and an ardent supporter of the Nazi regime. His job involved maintaining and repairing anti-aircraft guns.
Finally, Josef Paul Savigny, the grandfather of current German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, was a member of the NSDAP and mayor of Brilon from 1928 to 1937. He held his post even before the Nuremberg Laws were implemented by the Third Reich. Among the current Chancellor's famous deeds is the renaming of two main streets in the town under his jurisdiction after Nazi Party leaders Adolf Hitler and Hermann Göring.
In short, the Nazi past, no matter how you look at it, remains an integral part of the family history of many German families. And politicians are no exception.
#1
If you recall the lines in the movie Patton, a lot of Germans had to be party members to get a job. Nothing fundamentally different than political patronage in American then or now.
#2
A number of relatives fought in the US military during WWII. Fairly sure there were some on the German side as well, including a couple of photographers that were believed to be actual Nazi's.
[NYPost] Does the "Gray Lady" have a "longstanding Jewish problem"?
That question may soon be answered in a Manhattan courtroom as the New York Times
...which still proudly claims Walter Duranty's Pulitzer prize... stands accused of an alleged attack piece on Israel. This week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced that he would sue the paper and columnist Nicholas Kristof for defamation over the publication of what he called a "blood libel."
The latest controversy emerged after the Times ran a Kristof column alleging widespread sexual abuse and torture of Paleostinians, including the use of dogs to rape prisoners. The government denounced the column as "one of the most hideous and distorted lies ever published against the State of Israel in the modern press."
The driving force behind the lawsuit may not be a verdict but discovery. Israel wants to put the Times under a spotlight and expose its methods and sources.
The Israelis allege that the column was intentionally posted ahead of the release of an independent Israeli report that found Hamas ..a regional Iranian catspaw,... had systematically used sexual violence in the onslaught of October 7, 2023.
It is unclear whether the lawsuit will be filed on behalf of individuals, groups, or the nation as a whole. Regardless of the framing, the defamation action could allow Israel to delve into the paper’s journalistic practices and alleged bias.
Under the higher "actual malice standard," Israeli counsel would likely need to prove that Kristof and the Times acted with knowledge of the allegation’s falsity or in reckless disregard of the truth.
The Times has been accused of such malice for years. A newspaper with an overwhelmingly Democratic and liberal readership, critics have accused the paper of pandering to its increasingly anti-Israeli base.
According to recent polls, two-thirds of Democrats ...every time you hear the phrase white people, white supremacy,white anything but paint, you're listening to a Democrat. Ask him/her/it to reimagine something for you; they do that a lot, though not well. They can hear a dog whistle a mile or two away. They invented the spoils system and Tammany Hall, and inspired the addition of the word (Thomas) Nasty to the English language. They want to stop continental drift and repeal the law of unintended side effects... (67%) now support Paleostinians over Israel (17%).
The newspaper has been repeatedly called out for slanted and sometimes false reporting on the Israeli-Paleostinian conflicts. For example, after Israel attacked Gazoo
...Hellhole adjunct to Israel and Egypt's Sinai Peninsula, inhabited by Gazooks. The place was acquired in the wake of the 1967 War and then presented to Paleostinian control in 2006 by Ariel Sharon, who had entered his dotage. It is currently ruled with a rusty iron fist by Hamas with about the living conditions you'd expect. It periodically attacks the Hated Zionist Entity whenever Iran needs a ruckus created or the hard boyz get bored, getting thumped by the IDF in return. The ruling turbans then wave the bloody shirt and holler loudly about oppression and disproportionate response... in response to the October 7th massacre, the Times reported on an alleged Israeli strike that destroyed part of the al-Ahli hospital. The Times seemed to rush to get the allegation into print, with little supporting evidence.
The story was based on sources associated with the terrorist group Hamas, which is notorious for disseminating propaganda and false stories. It took a week before the Times retracted the claim. (It turned out to be a misfired Paleostinian rocket that hit a parking lot).
The Times has been forced to make a series of retractions and apologies for such coverage. After the newspaper ran a column that it later admitted was antisemitic, Times columnist Bret Stephens wrote that "The Times has a longstanding Jewish problem ... continuing into the present day in the form of intensely adversarial coverage of Israel."
In May 2021, a front-page story contained multiple factual errors and biased elements, including the portrayal of a Hamas krazed killer as a civilian child. It also used a stock image of a girl to claim that she was a dead Paleostinian child.
The Times also claimed that, in a later retracted statement, most of the dead from Arclight airstrike ...KABOOM!... s in Gaza were civilians.
The Times has had to sever ties with antisemitic writers, or stringers, including one who said "the Jews are sons of the dogs, and I am in favor of killing them and burning them like Hitler ...late Fuehrer of Germany, founder of the Third Reich, currently communing with his pals Himmler and Heydrich. He is reincarnated every few days, sometimes every few hour if it's an election year, as a politician somebody doesn't like... did to them."
These past controversies are potentially admissible in a defamation trial to show malice and a history of reckless reporting about Israel.
Critics allege that Kristof’s column was also based on dubious sources connected to Hamas.
The Times only names a few of the 14 individuals claiming to have been raped or otherwise sexually assaulted by Israeli settlers or members of the security forces. However,
man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... Israel has pointed out that several have changed their accounts over time.
Moreover, the Times is relying on sources such as Euro-Med Human Rights Monitor, a group with a controversial history of false claims and ties to Hamas. This group has been criticized for allegedly spreading the false story that Israel was harvesting dead Paleostinians for human organs.
A trial could get to the truth of the matter, and the Times will be able to make its case.
But one argument the publication can’t make it that it was an opinion, a common defense in defamation cases. Kristof was stating a "fact" and the Times reaffirmed his factual reporting.
The case will not be easy. The biggest problem with a defamation claim is that "blood libel" sounds a lot like a "group libel."
The Times clearly has the advantage in such litigation in New York. The driving force behind the lawsuit may not be a verdict but discovery. Israel wants to put the Times under a spotlight and expose its methods and sources.
The Times stressed that it has "on-the-record accounts," but the constitutional standard is not satisfied with "sources" but credible sources. A publication can show reckless disregard in ignoring the malice or bias of its sources.
It will be a while before the Gray Lady is actually before a jury, if ever. However,
man does not live by words alone, despite the fact that sometimes he has to eat them... it may soon have to answer if it remains faithful to its founding pledge to publish "all news fit to print."
Brilliant demolition of the NYT's BS dog rape story - by veteran Australian editor Alan Howe: What NYT should’ve asked before publishing its Palestinian rape story https://t.co/Jkee8Y6XMWpic.twitter.com/Ff4Jle1KXi
#2
Everything is controlled by the Elders of Zion. Including the maternity hospital where you were born. You weren't born an idiot - you were made one.
…who have always loathed the idea of Israel and have not been Jewish for generations. The New York Times deliberately ignored the Holocaust, despite personal correspondence with German-Jewish cousins-by-marriage reporting on conditions as they tried to escape. I’ve mentioned before that my mother’s first husband’s mother was one of the correspondents.
Their reporting about Israel has always been equally slanted against the country — the Sulzbergers have always been very clear on what they do and do not like.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
...late Fuehrer of Germany, founder of the Third Reich, currently communing with his pals Himmler and Heydrich. He is reincarnated every few days, sometimes every few hour if it's an election year, as a politician somebody doesn't like...
