Notices by Kristian Kiehling (kristian_kiehling@mastodon.social)

The clock is ticking down on a little-noticed executive order requiring the secretaries of defence and homeland security to submit a joint report within 90 days recommending "whether to invoke the Insurrection Act". What if Trump were to invoke the Insurrection Act and declare martial law on April 20th?

https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/insurrection-act-president-trump-20201819.php

“I come from a family that was persecuted by Russians. My mother was born in Siberia and barely survived. My family was imprisoned, tortured, murdered. We know that when Russians come, then your best case scenario is that you are imprisoned or deported.
But most likely you will be raped, tortured and murdered. That is the threat that is actually looming over Europe right now.

https://www.euronews.com/my-europe/2025/02/20/lithuanian-defense-minister-urges-europe-to-be-armed-to-the-teeth-amid-us-russia-talks

As Jakub Hrusa makes his debut as music director,the Royal Opera rolls out the red carpet for a return of soprano Anna Netrebko,who will lead a new production of Tosca, as well as a revival of Turandot and a piano recital later in the season. Netrebko is notorious for celebrating russian war crimes.

https://www.rbo.org.uk/news/royal-opera-house-winter-programme-to-open-with-tosca-in-january-2021-featuring-a-stellar-cast-led-by-operatic-superstar-anna-netrebko

Latvian MOD Andris Spruds: "We are sending another 1.500 combat drones from Latvia. Two Latvian companies will deliever a total of 12.000 drones worth 17 million Euros to Ukraine in the first half of this year as part of an international drone coalition". ( The drone coalition, led by the United Kingdom and Latvia, was established in January 2024 to enhance Ukraine's unmanned aerial vehicle capabilities)

"We believe we need to look into the possibility of adjusting Article 137 of the Constitution of the Republic of Lithuania if our allies propose realistic plans for the deployment of nuclear weapons or their components in Lithuania, and also to review other commitments"
Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene

https://www.baltictimes.com/lithuania_may_need_to_change_constitution_for_nuclear_weapon_deployment_-_defmin/

Angela Merkel chose to give an interview to the Russian propaganda outlet Berliner Zeitung, whose owner Holger Friedrich is a former STASI-member who likes to visit the Russian embassy. She said: "President Zelenskyy alone cannot decide when it is time for diplomacy. Ukraine can only decide together with its supporters...a discourse about Russia's own interests must be allowed". Merkel also denied any responsibility for the Russian war in Ukraine.
archived link:

https://archive.ph/DKUru#selection-1875.163-1875.320

Maksym Butkevych talked at a libereco.org event in Berlin about civilians held in Russian prisons and how he's working with the Center for Civil Liberties to make the release of POWs and civilian prisoners a precondition for negotiations with Moscow. He spoke of the importance of writing to civilians illegally detained by Russia,as unlike prisoners of war,they have no officially recognized status.Receiving mail from abroad can be vital for prisoners' morale as well as their chances of survival.

Trump has used the Oval Office meeting as an ambush to make the American people believe that Ukraine is ungrateful and does not deserve U.S. support. In the days leading up to the meeting, POTUS has consistently called for new elections and slandered the democratically elected president of Ukraine, calling him a dictator. All of this was designed to discredit and ultimately remove the only person standing in the way of closer relations with Russia: President Zelenskyy.

https://www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/2025/02/28/7500747/

The Jewish president and war hero is insulted in front of the whole world by a crook and his sidekick, and this is all the future German chancellor has to say? How shameful and disgusting that the only European leader with integrity and with courage is the president of Ukraine.

https://bsky.app/profile/evikasilina.bsky.social/post/3ljb6o7k7ss2q

This must be seen in its entirety (7:59 min): POTUS / FSB-agent Krasnov and his conspiracy-believing hillbilly sidekick,who have never been to Ukraine, dare to lecture Ukraine's Jewish president and war hero, who is famous for the line "I don't need a ride, I need ammunition".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ56ibIel1U

“The essence of propaganda is constant simplicity and repetition. Only those who reduce problems to the simplest formula and have the courage to repeat them forever in this form, even against the objections of intellectuals, will achieve fundamental success in influencing public opinion in the long run.”

Joseph Goebbels 1942

Even though Russia currently wages a genocidal war in Europe's largest country and constantly threatens European nations to expand further westward, millions of misinformed German voters have cast their votes for a party that says "We will not vote for re-armament" (minute 26:02)

https://www.ardmediathek.de/video/phoenix-vor-ort/wahlnachlese-die-linke/phoenix/Y3JpZDovL3Bob2VuaXguZGUvNDgwMTYxNw

My family could not vote for over 40 years under Russian occupation - so I know the colours of freedom. Good luck, Germany!

Latvia again increases its defence budget to 4% of GDP in 2026, aiming for 5%

https://euromaidanpress.com/2025/02/18/latvia-eyes-4-nato-spending-in-2026-on-track-to-5/

By abandoning Ukraine and inviting Moscow to further expand its territory into Europe, Trump is proving that it was far easier for Russia to take over the Republican Party than it was for them to take over Ukraine.

https://www.channel4.com/news/trump-shocks-europe-with-avalanche-of-concessions-to-putin-over-ukraine

"I don't think they realize that the Hitler-Stalin pact is no longer in force: it's not the Germans and the Russians who are agreeing over the heads of the Eastern Europeans or decreeing things. I find it strange that Germans are talking about Russian security interests and sensitivities, and not focusing on the victim, the attacked Ukraine. For me, this is basically still a mental aftershock of the Nazi era, namely the more or less hidden affinity with the aggressor".
https://www1.wdr.de/mediathek/audio/wdr3/wdr3-mosaik/audio-schriftsteller-marko-martin-westen-laesst-ukraine-im-stich-100.html

Four years ago, Pope Francis opened the archives on his predecessor, who was called Hitler's pope because Pope Pius XII wouldn't take sides during the Holocaust. What an irony that today Pope Francis is already known as Putin's Pope, for he too knows no better and fails to condemn the russian campaign of terror and genocide in Ukraine, taking every opportunity to blame the Ukrainian victims for resisting the russian aggressors' attempts to exterminate them. https://www.vaticannews.va/en/vatican-city/news/2020-03/holy-see-archives-pope-pius-xii-world-war-ii.html

Legal success for the civil society organization "Democracy Reporting International" (DRI): In summary proceedings, the Berlin Regional Court has ordered Platform X to grant the organization unrestricted access to all publicly available data from X until shortly after the Bundestag elections Experts from DRI want to investigate whether the social network is being used to influence elections in the run-up to the ballot on February 23. https://www.newsweek.com/elon-musk-x-german-court-election-data-2028262

Some serious Hitler vibes in the Kremlin:
"To further advance international cultural and humanitarian cooperation, the President has mandated that the Intervision International Music Contest be held in Moscow and the Moscow Region in 2025."
http://en.kremlin.ru/acts/news/76203

Berlin police said 3,000 people were expected, but 80,000 turned up to fill the streets and march on the CDU party headquarters to protest against its chancellor candidate Friedrich Merz's collaboration with the far-right extremist AFD party. Meanwhile, Merz himself was heard on television doubling down on his position to continue collaborating with the far-right extremist AFD party even after the upcoming elections, saying "Yes, I would do it again!".