Well I don’t know if Kyiv is going to fall tomorrow, but it is obvious there is a lack of…
Meddling in Hungarian Elections from the USA
I reported about the obscure theories that the CIA would meddle into our the elections to oust Orbán, a story foreign minister Szijjártó promoted before he declared that this hadn’t been the case and that he was “misunderstood.” With other words the minister was afraid to repeat a propaganda lie in American TV, however the story still lives within the far right.
Fact however is, that Americans are very active campaigning for Orbán. Obviously after Trump lost his elections there are serious concerns that “Trump before Trump” could be defeated as well. It started in the very first days of the year with an obscure endorsement Trump’s for Orbán, which internationally went through the media ►EN. Orbán had been ignored by American politicians regardless their political affiliation after his disgusting comment on the terror attacks on September 11th for nearly 20 years, and it took years of the Trump presidency to get Orbán out of this isolation. How much Orbán acts against American interests as well doesn’t bother Trump since. But on January 19th Trump called Orbán with his congratulations on the “outstanding economic performance” of his regime ►EN. Trump has proven again that he has no clue about economy, Hungary, and it is most ridiculous that he accepted Orbán’s Hungary as “good ally of the US,” especially in the light of the Orbán’s standing in the Ukraine crisis.
But it is not only Trump who is promoting Orbán. Notorious fake news spreader Tucker Carlson is back in Hungary, which is not only noticed by his own TV station, but closely watched by Hungarian media as well. So the regime is happily telling how good their standing is abroad with the “good guys,” but the remaining free media also reports about the blundering American propagandist. So he said in his production Hungary vs Soros: “This is what their [Hungarians] entire immigration strategy looks like, I saw it with my own eyes. They take the guys, take pictures, question them and take them out of the fence and 15 minutes later they go back to Slovakia” ►HU. Not mentioning that pushing back to Serbia is violating both the Schengen border codex (valid law in Hungary as in all participating countries) and human rights. The original is linked directly on the homepage of Fox, but hidden behind both geoblocking and paywall. I succeeded in watching the trailer and it is hate spreading against György Soros, showing propaganda messages of Orbán who talked about -how all Hungarians would think, and mixing pictures of riots (no idea where they were taken) with the beautiful spots of Budapest that tourists usually visit. I didn’t see a single second of Hungarian real life. Of course this would have disturbed the message of the “modern country” talked about in the trailer. The Hungarian regime propaganda machine and the fake news factory from the US are working narrowly together to promote the Orbán regime.
If this wouldn’t be enough US Republicans will rally in the weekend before the elections in Budapest in the framework of Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC,) an event that is in the US held yearly in favour of the GOP. CPAC has grown from a small conference of dedicated conservatives to a huge alt-right event, where in earlier years not only Trump, but also Milo Yiannopoulos or Steve Bannon participated in. Of course in Budapest it will be held with Orbán as key speaker. Orbán’s own fake NGO with the strange name Alapjogokért Központ (Centre for Fundamental Rights) that does everything against all individual, but especially human rights, will act as host. They announced on their website that “leading politicians, thinkers, journalists, and influencers on the Right from North and South America, Europe, and Asia will take part in CPAC Hungary.” According to a media report “US senators and house representatives” ►EN will rally for Orbán.
Of course the regime regards this meddling from the USA in Hungarian elections as positive, since the extreme right does so. The possible OSCE observation mission to make democratic elections more likely is regarded as meddling into Hungarian affairs.
Voila, the “Council of Judges” (OBT) has already submitted to Orban's "reorganization" by the afternoon. https://obt-jud.hu/sites/default/files/ulesek/Osszefoglalo_2024.11.20.pdf
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Current US situation: https://www.cdc.gov/bird-flu/situation-summary/index.html https://www.aphis.usda.gov/livestock-poultry-disease/avian/avian-influenza/hpai-detections/commercial-backyard-flocks
Tucker Carlson is now under some pressure from some of his own supporters in the USA, who are also extremely hostile to Russia and China in relationship to his cozy relationship with Orban’s government. This is aggravated by the Russian troops threatening Ukraine, not that most of these types of people here in the USA have any love for the Ukraine seeing it as a source of money for Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, who was on the board of the Ukrainian energy company Burisma which paid him for being on that Board.
Probably the most mentally unstable elected Trump supporter in the USA might be US Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene from Georgia, she has openly supported many conspiracy theories including the white genocide conspiracy theory, QAnon, and Pizzagate, as well as other disproven conspiracy theories such as false flag mass shootings that were supposedly created to limit gun rights within the USA. She now is arguing that that US President Joe Biden was backing Ukraine against Russia because Ukraine “has dirt on Hunter Biden.” (see https://gettr.com/post/pqjhtm76bb where she is interviewed by the equally disturbed Steve Bannon). I suspect that the Fidesz hack writers will pick up on this and slip it into Magyar Nemzet and Hir Tv eventually in their attempt to further undermine NATO.
Off topic. It has been formally announced that the USA has provided the Russia Federation with a written response to a proposed treaty written by them which would essentially force NATO to provide no direct support for Hungary under NATO’s article 5 based on the principle of collective defense because it would prohibit all US military forces from being on Hungarian soil (see ttps://mid.ru/ru/foreign_policy/rso/nato/1790818/?lang=en ). Interestingly the USA has requested that the Russians not to make this written response public. There is a lot of media speculation on what the written response does say. It does appear from all comments coming from the US State Department the USA formally rejected Russian demands that all US forces be removed from Hungary and other Central European NATO countries, although there are very few US military forces in Hungary currently (mostly US Air Force at Papa Air Base).
What I did find most interesting is that the US response to the Russians was also accompanied by a formal NATO written response (see https://www.dw.com/en/us-nato-send-written-response-on-russias-security-demands/a-60567276 ). Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said today that the United States’ written answers to Russia’s security demands do not contain a “positive response” to the Kremlin’s top priority, which is a freeze on NATO expansion and only deal with what he called secondary questions. What is interesting about this is it would appear that Hungary supported the written NATO response, or at the very least did not oppose it. What is even more interesting is that MTI’s report on the written response issue https://magyarnemzet.hu/kulfold/2022/01/az-orosz-kulugybe-erkezett-washington-valaszaval-az-amerikai-nagykovet is written to make no mention of a NATO written response having also been provided to the proposed Russian treaty.
However MTI for the first time actually provided the Hungarian people with a description of what was in the proposed Russian treaty. It now states: “Russia submitted a draft bilateral treaty to the United States in mid-December, proposing, among other things, that Washington commit itself to halting NATO’s eastern expansion, ending military cooperation with post-Soviet countries, withdrawing its nuclear weapons from Europe, and deploying strike systems that could threaten Russia on the continent.” (my translation)
I have just learned today that my daughter who is a Lt Col in the US Army reserves is at Fort Carson Colorado involved in training for winter warfare along with other members of the US Army for one week. It is likely part of preparations for potential deployment to Central Europe for some troops. I assume my daughter is somehow involved with the command structure of this training program because she is a graduate of the US Army Mountain Warfare School in Camp Ethan Allen, Vermont where she became an Special Qualification Identifier (SQI) SQI-O “Military Mountaineer.” The course was open to all Military personnel throughout Department of Defense, she took it before she went to Afghanistan for her first deployment several years ago. She got a fancy patch which she is proud of.
“Tucker Carlson is now under some pressure from some of his own supporters in the USA, who are also extremely hostile to Russia and China in relationship to his cozy relationship with Orban’s government. ”
Yes, the ruling establishment in the US and Modern Democrats (no longer any kin to Democrats even as recent as 25 years ago) fear Putin, revile Orban, and will not say anything critical of China.
I personally know countless Populists in the U.S. and I never hear anything but praise from them about Carlson. As to Putin and Orban : you surely must know that Orban and Putin are their darlings.
Totally OT but …
An international study financed by OECD found that excess Covid mortality is about twice as high in populist countries as in democratic countries!
Now think a minute – which are examples of populist undemocratic countries?
Yes, Hungary, Poland and even the UK …
https://www.spiegel.de/ausland/corona-sterberisiko-unter-populistischen-regierungen-hoeher-a-0d97a759-6f65-486b-a723-25792946eba1
I’m still looking for an article in English.
Update:
This already appeared in May 2021, an update would be nice:
Populism and COVID-19: How
Populist Governments (Mis)Handle
the Pandemic
I am already selecting material about the same topic.