a member of the populist alternative for germany party says extremists have threatened to assassinate or even left the cross with the predicted time of death written on it. also this hour little is larger as a character in a new disney series baby yoder is proving more popular than any of the us 2020 democratic hopefuls trending online. there's outrage in the u.s. after the man acquitted of murdering an unarmed black teenager in 2012. demanding $100000000.00 in damages the killing of trayvon martin sparked the black lives nothing new.

there live from moscow this is r.t. international. welcome to you wherever you are watching 1st for you germany where a member of the mass migration party alternative for germany has said that extremists have threatened to assassinate her because of her political beliefs kristie to urge the media and other political parties to stop it her words their hate campaign against the party reporting from berlin his evangelos sepsis. if the politician christina has posted a picture on social media of a cross with number of insults written on it but also a very serious threat towards her the cross was this covered by the if there politician near her office where she works as a dentist on wednesday evening the police do not know who the perpetrators are but since this is a threat towards a local politician they have passed on the investigation to the domestic

intelligence services office the alternative for germany party has quick to condemn the attack and urged the media and political parties to stop spreading their hatred against the i if the. thread to just the tip of the iceberg attacks on i have to officials are becoming more and more common at 1st officers and events of the were attacked and now it's upon me against the law the health of our politicians while many politicians have come out to condemn this threat towards christine about the greens who have seen a fair share of threats towards in the past say that these types of incidents should not be tolerated but a social democrat politician has called out kristina as being a liar and all this comes as pressure has been a mounted on a of the politicians by the sea the u n c s hugh calling to boycott them and impose a blanket ban of anybody cooperated with them they even went as far as saying that

even having a cup of tea or coffee with them should be prohibited we have made clear again that we reject any form of cooperation with the dea even if it is just but if we go back a little bit from the beginning of this year there's been a number of threats and attacks towards politicians from many sides of the political spectrum. well it seems that the political landscape in germany has been changing with

a decrease of popularity form the c.d.u. and the speed to the increase of popularity for the i if this specially in the eastern states of this country while these attacks are becoming more dominant in politics in germany critics are hoping that this will not turn into a disturbing trend. well let's talk to somebody from the party then european parliament member for the f.t. going to welcome to r.t. how would you explain the frequent number of attacks on no party. good evening to you well perhaps as a starter apparently there has been 52 threats against the person or to disrupts. party meetings in the last quarter of this year and i mean the last quarter that's only about 2 months so far how do i explain those threats when it's

a combination of relentless media portrayal of a party as a as and the alleged right wing or perhaps even fascist organization. combined with the activities of a large number of. governmental organizations. which are often extremely well funded one should perhaps a there in germany where there's very little media plurality the principal or. media in germany are all publicly funded and they are broadly directed by councils which have practically only our political opponents on their boards so these are some of the factors i'm not pretending i know them all but is it really all of the door of the media and other groups though don't you think that your party's own quite radical policies or narrative

a provocative and upsetting a large swathe of people well. i think there's no question that there's a very large there's a very pronounced media biased bias now. well. some of our party. spokesman choose words that are there are times. not perhaps. as wise as one would wish to be but i think when it comes to content i think we are essentially. putting forward policies that in germany would have been perfectly mainstream about 20 years ago in fact none of our policies would really shock would have shocked c.d.u. voters about 15 years ago we don't think that living in the past. not really

i mean all i'm saying is germany wasn't a fascist country the c.d.u. wasn't fascist 15 years ago we are conservative party if that's what you mean by living in the past then we plead guilty back to the topic at hand in terms of the threat to not only members of your party are experiencing but this is something that affecting several parties from across the spectrum and all sorts of politicians either existing or perspective what triggered this general increase in violence against politicians in this current climate well i think there's little doubt that my party is the principal victim of this political violence what's triggered it i think. it's important to bear in mind that germany in many respects is not the society where. it is patrol as in many foreign media

germany's not as rich as many people think. many people are dissatisfied with the extreme consensus politics. of the country seen under mrs merkel and i think living standards i think people are now beginning to realize that despite the fact that mrs merkel is telling them that they've never had it so good living standards for well over 2 thirds of the population have not risen in the last 25 years your party just chosen a new co-leader is that going to change things do you see the party going in a different direction. no i can't see there tall i think there's no well there's now a leader. from a western regional west german regional ss and there's one from the

east in the east as your reporter said before i came on we are presently stronger than in the west i think it's perfectly reasonable for us to have a representative from those parts of the country are ok for now going to be from alternative for germany thanks for your time on r.t. thank you. it's been a rocky start for some us presidential election campaigns with several runners already stumbling of the 1st hurdle and dropping out but it seems that the baby yoda character from a star wars spin off could be quite a successful candidate if it through its name into the 2020 presidential race according to a recent poll baby odorous out trending all democratic hopefuls on social media including front runners joe biden bernie sanders but that's not going to stop those 2 and the many others still up for consideration striving to be called the perfect candidate right as they have as more on that. in this imperfect world of ours the

who really grill is finding something perfect it is of course impossible but goodness do they really try every 4 years in america elections the eternal search for the perfect candidate a smallish chink in their houllier than that our armor is enough to sink him or her and i really mean the smallest chink for example pete booted judge currently ranked 4th in the democrat candidate polls he's a darling a mayor a family guy openly gay and he even has a disabled dog i mean what an angel but then i see he went too far he helped the homeless participated in salvation army charity events and that's a christian organization which is sometimes accused of homophobia you know hard

core christians and all apparently race issues aren't the only thing. is slow to grasp what is his excuse for not realizing the salvation army is homophobic hard to imagine a more succinct visual metaphor for i will gleefully work for the active destruction of my people if it makes me seem in a yacht or more electable than boots adige shorter within a seriously antique with salvation army these activists are literally accusing an openly gay man of supporting homophobia just just let it sink in as a dropped out of the race yet unlike camelot harris and one of her crimes as a half black half tamil indian woman was that she just wasn't black enough skin pigmentation seems to really really matter for a presidential candidate then you. have bernie sanders spent his life

trying to power the poor and for his troubles had the d.n.c. election rigged against him last time around but bernie just doesn't get it america doesn't want someone who cares so much for the poor sanders just does not understand that a $15.00 minimum wage will hurt the job market and there's no way we can afford to make education free for everyone and on top of bernie's you know principles and decency he's just ancient. get on and much like former vice president and controller see magnate joe biden e's neck deep in just the weirdest stuff even getting really close and taking the nice sniff of people's hair now embroiled in ukraine gate he got his little boy a nice cushy job that pays

a standing amounts in ukraine the poorest nation in europe and modern civil war to boot i'm sure he can remember all that stuff them ages getting the better of him to his memory isn't what it was then we have elizabeth warren who hasn't quite yet figured out who she is in case you missed it she tried to pass a self off as part native american which was an exaggeration by which i mean it was entirely made up bashing. no what it seems is good enough homosexual whole move a black woman who isn't black enough an old man that's obsessed with helping the people that need help biden in his head sniffing and seriously what the hell then again perhaps people wouldn't need pics so much if you know they had something else to talk about if these people had their plan beyond beating trump ke

a plan for america and americans but hey maybe not i think serious. stuff the man acquitted of murdering unarmed black teenager trayvon martin in 2012 1st launched a lawsuit asking for $100000000.00 in damages the original case of sparks the black live matter movement in the united states.

and this all traces back to february 2012 trayvon martin was returning from a trip to the grocery store neighborhood watch volunteer george zimmerman 40 was acting suspiciously then during an altercation mr zimmerman fatally shot the 17 year old claiming it was an act of self-defense he was later cleared of 2nd degree murder and it seems that even 7 years on division over the verdict remains as wrong as ever. it was one of the most resonant criminal cases in recent u.s. history the 2012 shooting of an unarmed african-american teenager a stark reminder of america's racial problems the vigilante george zimmerman saw the unarmed african-american teenager trayvon martin while patrolling in his neighborhood he then shot him dead family of trayvon martin has always maintained that this was a case of murder but george zimmerman's claim of self-defense got him a verdict of not guilty in court but now george zimmerman is going back to court

he's going to say to the martin family as well as the prosecutors claiming they did irreparable psychological damage to him because of their arrest charges prosecution and federal investigation zimmerman lives in constant fear of physical harm due to regular death threats which often are expressed in rap music as well as online social media commentary this move has got the black community theorists many calling zimmerman's move us this is why we will never be silent and continue to fight fully variation in justice. george zimmerman has punched through the bottom and sunk lower than scum i don't care how specific the allegations are he deserves nothing except prison time i fail to understand the logic i mean how absurd can american legal system be now the attorney representing trayvon martin's parents says that this lawsuit is reckless and unfounded i have every confidence that this

unfounded under richesse lawsuit will be revealed for what it is another failed attempt to defend the indefensible and a shameless attempt to profit off the lives and grief of others 7 years on from the death of trayvon martin and the woes seem on heal for martin's family and for george zimmerman and us society also as wounds that are sore and open the divide is getting wider well those of us who are waiting with these protests in nature us resort lation this tasteless no surprise we all know that there has been a virtual reign that. the white population of united states now at least during the battle day to slavery well look at the decade your star party this reign of 0 have been exacerbated but there's no moment was which is ripping the band-aid

off. it's certainly infuriating the white population of florida we're 3 upon martin slain it would not surprise me at all if there were massive protests erupt in florida in coming days and weeks and it was starts in a direct you so this film a lot so i hope that 3 months more and family are a very good story and more than that cold generate a massive movement against this once. next a not so festive christmas card joke has been heavily criticized in britain for mocking people without simon's disease leading charity calls it damaging and utterly inappropriate for the more than half a 1000000 people in the u.k. who have to mentor the cards that are now been removed from all but one website depicts a grandfather who has the disease being removed from christmas dinner accused of

committing an obscene act and linking it to his illness online shopping giant amazon was one of the 1st to stop selling it after serious concerns were put forward by the outside society charity in the u.k. . although we like to joke at alzheimer's society as much as the next person as many people with dementia and their families means jokes and humor as a way of coping with how do you feel the content of this card is misinformed utterly inappropriate and actively damaging to the wider representation of people living with dementia discussing it with us next then linda bellows who's a specialist in british equality law and also look at all since our lawyer and legal editor of spiked online good evening to you both thanks for joining us on r.t. . to you 1st most people are going to see this car crash not to mention lacking in any particularly creative merits a lot of people aren't above a near the knuckle joke but should it really be on sale shouldn't retailers be exercising some caution. well i think we have experienced

a slight overreaction i think what we need to understand is that this is a car produced by more than toss and if you know about modern toss the cartoonists they specialize in using crass and distorted expectations of what is expected of a particular situation i'm caricaturing them so i think comedians always have to be very very wary of what we call punching down situating the humor of a joke in someone's vulnerability now i don't think that this card actually did that i think that more than toss play with people's expectations of a particular scenario and caricature all of them and situate their humor in that caricature or so i don't think the humor of this card was on the grandfather or on the situation itself and i certainly don't think it affects people's genuine perceptions of what is involved in fact i think the caller actually plays with people's expectations often distorted and inaccurate expectations of workouts arms involves having said all that people who deal with outside news and mental health

issues more widely are entitled to have their opinion about the cardinal entitle to say this card is simply not funny or is inappropriate and disgusting that's all perfectly acceptable and no doubt more than toss we're ready for the backlash that would be that would be mounted against it but i think taking it off for sale fails to recognize that people are complicated based there may well be people who are living without simers or who have family suffering without simon's out there who are fans of modern toss and will nonetheless get the joke and find it funny and i think by taking out the sail by and with the outside of society pretending that everyone who has an interaction without this obvious thinks the same way i think we're slightly underestimating people's capacity to find humor in even the most black and dark situations than there is there a little bit of an overreaction that people might be feeling uncomfortable with the subject matter and feeling offended on others behalf. yep.

i have to say that my my father had families before he died. and i didn't find it funny ever there were amusing things that he was able to share and. if only we if we had a cure for alzheimer's i suspect we might all relax a little but even funny isn't making jokes about the army of things surely i mean do we make jokes about the holocaust should we i mean on the basis of what i just heard that justified then the whole of course for rape or this list the number of things that could be if you were using this logic funny. i must say that i and that he. does feel that even if there is a dark humor that there are situations that with the clever wit of certain

comedians can go to dark places and if not make light of it create humor where you might not consider any in this it's really just playground offending to me about what i said in the you know what i said in the beginning was that the question is where the sight of the human lies now are the subjects that you just listed have been used as top topics for comedy but comedians have to be very careful as to where they situate base humor it would not be funny to make a joke merely at the expense of the victims of the holocaust or victims of rape but there are ways you can craft jokes in order to situate the humor away from people's vulnerability and actually punch up and actually you know be creative with the way that you make people laugh not entirely acceptable has always been a part of comedy and it's a very important part of comedy in order to break down barriers about what we feel it is acceptable to speak about so i think that nothing should be off the table when it comes to comedy but comedians have to be very careful to situate the target of their. it's not some people react very badly when comedians do you punch down

because punching down just isn't funny i think the primary question here is is the joke funny i'm a i think there will be a listers of course entirely in talking to her opinion and i don't know that she's entirely entitled to reject the card entirely but by the same token other people should be able to make that judgment for themselves and if there are people out there who are fans of this particular artist this particular group more than tossed and who have interactions with outsiders or even if they don't they should be entitled to form their own view and by taking the card away what we're suggesting is that people are so stupid that they won't be able to distinguish this joke from an actual days of material about accurately informing people about zombies i think it's a problem. if if if people who have alzheimer's were treated . sympathetically see as not subject to jokes and i am done i don't just mean that i mean in general things silly

things stupid things are said which i think you mean a person who previously may have had a perfectly sound mind and his mind is being distorted by what's going on the chemical things a gun on the brain so. as i say if there were cured and treatments effective treatment for alzheimer's i suspect we'd all be able to. manage yokes but however whatever the circumstances but it's because it's so it strikes people from a variety of ages and. and if it isn't firmly then i suppose i am as i said before i'm losing my my humor about. there is a big difference isn't there between. laughing with somebody and there are

a couple of really good people with disability comedians who are getting some really good work in the usa at the moment that this would be as pretty much just malicious cheap playground dig it something that it's an easy shot. well i really do without them. i think and i think everything linda said is absolutely right but i think and you're also right to identify those comedians who because they are afflicted by a particular condition are able to lawful most directly at the condition itself they're able to actually send up and laugh at themselves and that's all perfectly acceptable part of comedic culture but i think the source of addition i would make to that is i think modern toss is its own particular piece and i think that if you look at it outside of its context it can be seen as very crude when i 1st heard about this story i assumed it was going to be one of the kind of jokes that lynn is probably talking about regarding out some you know people being forgetful and so on and often those jokes simply aren't funny because they are situating as i said the

comedy in people's vulnerability in there and in there and in this and in the symptoms of the condition itself but i think what more than toss we're trying to do a little bit clumsily perhaps is to send up people's distorted expectations of what is involved and caricatural. a situation involving al simon's to sort of purposely distort people's perception of it and i think that you do have to have some understanding of tosses work in order to understand where the side of the human lies now maybe that's a misjudgment on their part because i think there is an obvious risk that people coming to their work for the 1st time on the basis of this card and only seeing this card will certainly interpret it as a sort of completely juvenile school but yog. mickey out of someone without simon's i just don't think that's what's going on linda does it not at least create as a talking point for people even whether they disagree or agree with this card that they will at least discuss a condition a disease that for most people they don't really understand at all and this as

yourself you're dealing with a relative who has it. i think you definitely have a point we having. are not going to. the shouting and screaming about about that card i'm not going to cash my where to buy it and i'm not going to do any damage to it to eat or anyone who's holding vertical all sends me all. it's worth and it what we are having is a conversation i'm glad we're having a conversation but i was invite those ringback who are making jokes to be a bit i don't know more sensitive about the hurt when you or. in my case it was my father but when your your your wife or your or your husband. has a condition like what alzheimer's what you're dealing with is very

very difficult and it's not worthy of a joke. i guess the point where we have a conversation i'm not shouting and screaming i'm not suggesting somebody should be sent to jail but i find those who think it funny. something else has been noticed in the problematic of the child in the car suggests that they rarely see their grandfather there are people with dementia people with outsiders for whom isolation is a critically serious problem throughout most troubling to normalize the mistreatment of vulnerable people. yet again i think if you're coming to modern toss for the 1st time then that would appear to be sending up the isolation and loneliness that people with outsiders undoubtedly feel but again i hate i'm almost becoming a. sort of apologist for them but i think what i would say is the site of the job

is to is in the crudeness of their presentation of the situation so it ties in with the aesthetic of the car which is very crudely drawn and they do the same sort of thing with all sorts of other areas of public life so they have a whole series on work where they present very crude presentations of a particular works in ario and then ratchet up the block humor aspect of that particular situation so it doesn't fit in with their work more broadly so but having said that you know everything you know linda said about the situation is perfectly reasonable and i completely understand it i just think there will be people out there who may think differently and by taking the card out of circulation or by trying to prevent modern toss from making jokes of this kind i think we do assume that people that all people think the same way and i'm sure linda will appreciate that people do think differently about the subject. absolutely of course we all you know. human beings.