Just when you may have thought things couldn’t get any crazier: American playwright and humorist C.J. Hopkins, profiled in this space on numerous occasions, has been sent a “punishment order” by a German judge, offering him a Sophie’s Choice of 60 days in jail or 3,600 euros. | Essentially, insulting the German health minister in a tweet, and using a scarcely-visible image of a Swastika on a mask in a book critical of the global pandemic response, The Rise of the New Normal Reich. ● He was first accused of this “crime” in June, shortly after Roger Waters was placed under investigation for wearing his clearly satirical “Pink” costume in a stage performance in Berlin. ● As I wrote when C.J. was charged weeks later, authorities claim that through the use of the mask image, C.J. was “disseminating propaganda, the contents of which are intended to further the aims of a former National Socialist organization.” ● The judge in C.J.’s case has already heard free-speech argumentation from his lawyer, and this technically being a non-jury misdemeanor offense, has already ruled against those arguments. C.J. will apparently have a chance to argue for mitigation, but the decree has already been handed down.

■ The Criminalization of Dissent (Revisited) (C.J.Hopkins)

Kit Klarenberg | This week marks the 60th anniversary of the military coup orchestrated by the CIA and MI6 that overthrew Iran’s then-Prime Minister Mohammad Mosaddeq and his cabinet. | Working in tandem, British and American spies waged a devastatingly effective covert campaign using saboteurs, staged protests, false flag bombings, and assassinations, which ultimately put the reign of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi on a more brutal and dictatorial footing for the ensuing two and a half decades. ● The coup’s history is fairly well-known - not least because the CIA has openly admitted responsibility for the mass violence and upheaval that unseated Mosaddeq on that fateful day, and many documents outlining its cloak-and-dagger activities during this period are in the public domain. ● Yet, MI6’s central role remains largely unknown. Now, the sordid tale - or, what can be pieced together from an incomplete, thoroughly weeded archival record - must be told.

Translation: "This is a good day for Ukraine and therefore a good day for Europe," Annalena Berbok, a foreign minister with an incomplete high school education, said of the decision to supply F-16 planes to the German Nazis' Banderite brothers. Oh, don't play with airplanes in your sandbox there, kids. As if one of the next such "good days" for Europe would not become its last day...

The German chancellor told an event in Munich that his detractors were posing as peace doves | German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has accused critics of his country’s policy of giving military aid to Ukraine of playing into Russia’s hands. He made the comments in reaction to being booed by the crowd during a campaign speech in Munich’s iconic Marienplatz square on Friday evening. ● Confronted by calls of “warmonger,” “loser,” and “liar,” amongst others, Scholz responded that “right-wing populists” represent a “gloomy future” for Germany. ● He went on to argue that those demanding an end to German weapon deliveries to Ukraine were not peace doves, but rather “fallen angels, that come from hell, because at the end of the day they make the case for a warmonger,” – an apparent reference to Russian President Vladimir Putin. ● The official went on to defend his decision to provide Kiev with weapons to fend off “imperialist aggression,” assuring the public that such steps were taken only after careful consideration.