Schedium

In the recent German federal state elections held on September 1, 2024, the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party achieved significant victories in both Saxony and Thuringia.  __________ In Thuringia the AfD emerged as the leading party, obtaining approximately 32.8% of the vote, making it the first far-right party to win a state election in Germany since the 1930s.  The Christian Democratic Union (CDU) followed with about 23.6%, while the Sahra Wagenknecht Alliance (BSW) secured third place with 15.8%.  The Social Democrats (SPD) only garnered around 6%, and the Greens 3.2%. The Greens, who are a coalition member of the incumbent German federal government alongside the Social Democrats and the Free Liberals, failed to meet the 5% threshold needed for representation in the state parliament. In Saxony, the CDU maintained a narrow lead with approximately 31.9% of the vote, closely followed by the AfD at around 30.6%. The BSW came in third with about 11.8%. The SPD ...

On February 3, 2024, writer and journalist Steven Beschloss wrote on Substack about his plans to travel to Japan: “I asked last year where in the world you might want to visit, but I’m thinking about it again now. I’m happy to say that this week I get the opportunity to briefly visit the place I have dreamed about for a long time. That’s Japan, including a quick visit to Kyoto and its bamboo forest by way of Tokyo and the bullet train. "As I described last year, I’m drawn to the physical beauty of Japanese gardens and ancient temples. I’m intrigued by the bustling contemporary art scene and the people—and both the hustle and quiet of everyday life. ‘I’m determined to visit.’”   When I read Beschloss’s piece, I thought: “How nice! He gets to travel to Japan, and he seems so enthusiastic about it!” But that's not your reaction if you're a far right ethno-nationalist spreading your ideology at every opportunity. The Substack account Yuri Bezmenov quote-posted Beschloss’s art...

Former Trump White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon once vowed to "deconstruct the administrative state", and he may get his way thanks to the Supreme Court's far right majority. The SCOTUS cases Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo and Relentless, Inc. v. Department of Commerce could have a huge impact on the power of federal agencies to make and enforce regulations.  Photo by Mr. Kjetil Ree .  Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 The cases challenge a legal doctrine established in the 1984 Supreme Court’s decision in Chevron v. National Resources Defense Council , which requires courts to defer to federal agencies’ interpretations of ambiguous laws, unless they are unreasonable. The so-called “ Chevron deference ” doctrine has enabled agencies to address complex administrative issues without having to wait for Congress to act. However, some conservative judges and critics of the Chevron deference claim that it gives too much power to unelected bureaucrats ...

On June 25, Greece ’s centre-right party New Democracy (ND) won the country's legislative elections in a landslide, propelling incumbent Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis to a second term. ND garnered over 40% of the vote and 158 seats in parliament, while the major opposition party, left-wing Syriza, only received 17% of the vote and 48 seats. The third and fourth largest parties were, respectively, the centre-left Pasok and the far left Communist Party. But what surprised observers was the performance of three far right parties, which received about 12% of the popular vote combined. The largest of them was the " Spartiates " (Spartans), which received 4.63% of the vote and 12 seats, followed by the anti-vax, Orthodox Christian nationalist Party "Niki" (Victory), and the far right Elliniki Lysi (Greek Solution). Spartiates logo, via Wikimedia Commons   The Spartiates are a far right, ethnonationalist party backed by the neo-fascist politician Ilias Kasidiaris...

I joined Substack only recently, around the time when the platform launched its Twitter-style feature called Notes . Just as I was starting to warm up to it, I saw on my timeline the following Note from Substack promoting a podcast by the company's co-founder Hamish McKenzie: "In this week’s episode of The Active Voice podcast, @Hamish McKenzie talks to @Richard Hanania about the origins of wokeness, the long reach of civil rights law, and the future of the culture wars." Who is Richard Hanania, you might ask? That's how The Active Voice introduces him : "[A]s the pandemic intensified online tribalism, [Richard Hanania] emerged with a provocative analysis that carried the headline “Why Is Everything Liberal?” The piece, which explores why almost every major institution in the U.S. leans left, did the rounds on Twitter, announcing Richard’s arrival as a distinctive new voice in American politics discourse. "Soon enough, he followed it up with a series of othe...