The regime is frightened.... What other evidence does Magyar have in store? Look at Orban's semi-official daily newspaper online. They…
Start of the Last Week
The week of the Hungarian general election begun – without surprises. Unity for Hungary held a rally in Siófok, they showed unity indeed and had the same messages I repeatedly wrote about and have shown optimism. Gergely Karácsony clearly pointed out that already in 2018 a government change would have happened if the opposition wouldn’t have run candidates against each other and that never before so many wanted a change as today.
On the other side CÖF (the “peace” march organising government owned NGO) praised the wisdom Orbán brought to Brussels last week. János Lázár, former 2nd man of the regime, one of the predecessors of Péter Márki-Zay as mayor and running for the same seat now, called Putin an aggressor “if you so much want me to do so,” and that he can do so because he has not to buy Russian gas, that would be the job of foreign minister Szijjártó. A regime member who admits that Orbán’s cowardice is connected to the gas business, he is suspected of using for private enrichment (MET AG.) For the rest the central FIDESZ message remains that Gyurcsány and Márki-Zay are dangerous.
Most moving I found an action on the banks of the Danube in Budapest, inspirited by the words of the president of Ukraine to the PM of Hungary last week in Brussels. This was the statement the Ukrainian embassy made available:
On March 27, the Ukrainian Association “Yednist” (unity) organized in Budapest near the memorial “Shoes on the Danube embankment” an action in honor of the victims in Mariupol – the city where Russian troops are currently committing war crimes.
Never again.
Prisoners of Buchenwald concentration camp used these words to convey the message to future generations: terrible crimes of the Nazi regime must not be repeated. This message was written with the blood of the Second World War martyrs.
But now, blood again flows in Europe.
On February 24, Russia started a war against the people of Ukraine. Not just a ‘military operation’, as Moscow claims. But a large-scale, genocidal war aimed at destroying Ukrainians: families, state, cities, communities, culture.
Nazi-style. Under absurdly false cause, accompanied by lying propaganda, destroying our memory, including Holocaust memorials, under the sinister neo-Swastikas, so- called ‘Z’ banners.
Russians have blocked the city of Mariupol. Hundreds of thousands of people without water, electricity, or food. People die unable to get out of the rubble, from dehydration and starvation.
Imagine being under the constant shelling and bombing for almost 30 days. Imagine there is no heat in the city. No medicine. No water. No food. Imagine your friends being buried not at the graveyard, but simply at your neighborhood. Imagine Russians bombing civil infrastructure: houses, schools, churches, universities. Even shelters, where people try to hide from death.
There was a shelter in the theater of Mariupol, right in the center of the city. Nearly 1300 people retreated there. They wrote deti (Russian for ‘kids’) near the theater, so Russian pilots could see that this is not the place for an airstrike.
On March 16 the theater was hit by Russian aerial bomb. Every person in the kitchen located on the first floor got killed. There were 300 people there. Mostly kids, women, elderly people. Their corpses cannot be gotten out of the rubble and buried, because of the constant firefight.
There is a memorial here, in Budapest. It is called Shoes on the Danube Bank. It honors those Jews who were massacred by fascist militia in 1944–1945. It shows their shoes, because these people were ordered to take them off before getting killed.
People of Europe thought it would happen ‘never again.’ But it is happening. The genocide of Ukrainian people is taking place now in Mariupol.
People of Europe have to take all possible and impossible measures to end this tragedy. Until that happens, new shoes will appear here, on the Danube Bank as a reminder that every day new war crimes are committed by Putin and we have not stopped him yet.
It is not as if the Hungarians identify themselves with the genocide they committed. Hungary sees itself as innocent, but it is not alone. In the Balkan states this is widespread. The 300 shoes that allegedly Ukrainians and their supporters put there was supposedly a protest against the attack on the theater in which 300 people died, another source says that these were the civilian victims of Putin’s brutal invasion of Ukraine. In both cases, the Hungarians are completely “innocent” …
20 Jews tied together = 1Rifle bullet
Yes Don I agree and one aspect of this issue of death in Ukraine is also the incredible slaughter of younger Russian contract soldiers that has taken place. While contrary to what Putin has said there are draftees in combat for the Russians and it has been admitted by the Russians, but the bulk of the losses taken by the Russians have been what they call contract professional soldiers. As of March 2020, the number of Russian conscripts was 225,000 and the number of contract soldiers was 405,000. We have also seen the huge death toll among professional officers in the Russian Army including many generals and other high ranking officers.
I have seen differing numbers of the relative military salaries of these contract soldiers, but given the average wages for Russians without advanced educations they seem ok and for sure their retirement benefits are relatively speaking based on our different standards of living are competitive with my own from the US Army. Of course you have to live to collect them and my impression is that there is considerable alcoholism among the contract soldiers in particular the veterans of Russia’s warfare in Syria many of whom seem to have PTSD. Not a pretty picture at all.
I have read that Russian soldiers have appropriated Ukrainian phones because the Russian leadership has collected all phones. They probably wanted to avoid triangulation of positions and now the Russian soldiers are talking to their families without a secure line, i.e. they can be tapped. According to Ukrainian information, Russian combat morale is down. Triangulation could also be the reason why so many Russian generals and officers were killed.
Allegedly, the Russian secret service received 150 million dollars every year only to promote Ukrainian businessmen and politicians in the interests of Russia. The money was fully drawn down every year but it never arrived in Ukraine. Who would have thought that in a corrupt state. If I find the source again I will post it
I have read the same thing Don and the Kyiv independent has also reported on it. But it appears the Russian officers were allowed to keep private cell phones because of how messed up the Russian secure system appears to be. The Ukrainians have claimed several high ranking Russians officers were killed by using their gps coordinates. In one case they claimed to have discovered a Russian General was using a cell phone stolen from a Ukrainian civilian, and killed him.
Don, if you want to say that many more Hungarians have to learn about their own crimes during history I fully agree. But that despite all the brainwashing of the Orbán regime, despite the “nice” monument in Budapest telling the world that we are just a victim of the Germans, we have the shoe monument for those Jews murdered by Hungarians – Zelensky referred to it as well – and we have a yearly commemoration of that Hungarian crime. And now there were Hungarians telling the world that Putin does the same as Hungarians in 1945 – while at the same moment Orbán’s propaganda machine is telling Hungarian TV watchers that Russia is defending its own people. And, also this must be said, with the German UFO expert Spöttle claiming on M1 that Putin is defending Russia from the Ukrainian attack. Your critics regarding very many Hungarians are correct, but please don’t close your eyes at the fact that it is not about all Hungarians.
The state racism against Roma through segregation, through laws like the “family support” that are tailored to be inaccessible by most Roma ! without any outcry, no they are not all like that? When you ask the question of Trianon, the wheat is separated from the chaff – not only in the vacuum of knowledge but also in the vacuum of reactions. We are not talking about a fraction of the population.
The sign, which the Ukrainians wanted to set at the Danube, shakes the Hungarians cordially little, most will be able to do with it nothing except perhaps that the Hungarians were also once “invaded”. My point was merely the thought.
Trianon must be taught about correctly in schools, it is a historic fact that is way too complicated to be called black or white. Do you remember how Éva reacted on the Trianon whining of a rightwing extremist telling that even Americans thought it would punish Hungary? That Americans had no clue about the fact how much people lived mixed here in Europe. Still today of course. I personally say that it was a completely unfair treaty, but regarding the fact that a nationalist solution was ordered perhaps the best possible. Make yourself familiar with the plan for the United States of Greater Austria. For being more than 100 years old a very modern idea, better than every nationalist approach. But no chance after the defeat of 1918 to be realised. But most important work for schools is to make clear that this is history, no question of today. That Hungarians can live in other countries as Germans can live in Belgium or in Italy. If schools stil today have to teach ideology it is hard to be angry at the generations that had to learn that ideology.
Family benefits not available for Roma families are about a question going way beyond racism. Orbán’s “take it from the poor and give to the rich” is a political decision, not a racist one. It is feeding the own clientele, creating a nationalist mid-class it is called in FIDESZ language. Orbán always had to choose between his Roma voters and his racist voters. In the case of segregation at schools racism won. It is all heavily unfair, it should be ended as soon as possible, but for sure it is not the same as murder.
Who killed Boris Nemtsov? – new evidence in a joint investigation between the BBC and Bellingcat https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vExk___aiv4
by the way I had to use a proxy server to watch it here in the USA because BBC blocked it from people with US addresses.
Glad you were able to watch it. I guess you wouldn’t be surprised by it, but I still find it shocking
I was amazed at how the BBC and Bellingcat researchers were able to gather this information in good part by using the corruption inherent in Russia and just buying it. I am guessing if the media can do this NATO intelligence and the CIA can do much, much more. I also read that the CIA refuses to give to the Ukrainians the sources for intel it is providing to Ukraine because it is widely believed the Russians have fully penetrated the Ukrainian military intelligence operations.Of course not said in that revelation was what ever intel is give to Ukraine has to be acted on relatively fast because the Russian may know about it.
But because the Russian communications system is such a mess it is questionable how quickly such counter intelligence information can get back down to the Russian forces in Ukraine. Oh by the way a good way to honestly help with the war effort by Ukraine is to contribute to Bellingcat at https://www.bellingcat.com/donate. I have made donations myself and see it as way to oppose Russian PSYOPs that is going on constantly by what they reveal and make public. To see their reports go to https://www.bellingcat.com/tag/ukraine/ it is translated into English, Russian, French, and Spanish. Maybe Soros should donate more to have it auto translated into Hungarian too.
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/FO8lTCjXEAEuSbi?format=jpg
“Bellingcat can confirm that three members of the delegation attending the peace talks between Ukraine and Russia on the night of 3 to 4 March 2022 experienced symptoms consistent with poisoning with chemical weapons. One of victims was Russian entrepreneur Roman Abramovich.”, sho lost his eyesight for several hours.
https://twitter.com/shaunwalker7
This insightful article appeared today about the Ukrainian use of combat and observational drones against the Russian forces https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/mar/28/the-drone-operators-who-halted-the-russian-armoured-vehicles-heading-for-kyiv. When I was effectively commanding part of the South Vietnamese artillery in the Battle of An Lộc in 1972 we used observation planes that were being taken down by north Vietnamese missiles and hidden observers from the South Vietnamese Army were constantly hunted by the North Vietnamese.
Everything is different now, soon it’s going to be combat robots fighting each other like in science fiction. Which could come down to the number of robots each side has, the hacking attacks on the command and control systems for the Robots, or even nano tech warfare using hoards tiny killer flying machines. One of my neighbors here in Chicago is actually a professor of nano-technology at Northwestern University which is located in a suburb. He is honestly a genius who completed his BS degree at 13 years old and had a phd five years later. He is now about 40 years old and was a big catch for Northwestern, loves cross county skiing and is pretty competitive. He goes all over the world to competitions and trains very aggressively.
We have the most amazing discussions in general about his work, some of which is paid for the US Department of Defense according to their grants listed in the public records. He of course follows the rules and does not talk about that.
This story https://edition.cnn.com/videos/world/2022/03/28/ukraine-warning-putin-russia-split-country-the-koreas-berman-vpx.cnn is basically the big debate going on now among military intelligence analysts, CIA, NSA, and NATO intelligence services. It really broke out in a big way a little over 48 hours ago. I watched it unfold among retired officers on blogs which was interesting. One retired general who was a logistics expert agued that the Russians were at this point incapable of consolidating even this land grab due to their exhaustion of resources, he cited some public data on Russian armaments production that went way beyond my own knowledge base.
I have a question for our host Istvan, do you have the current polling data from sources closer to the united opposition and can you summarize it in brief. I read this morning https://magyarnemzet.hu/belfold/2022/03/nezopont-a-fideszkdnp-47-az-egyesult-baloldal-42-szazalekon-all-a-valasztasok-elott-egy-hettel which I assume is in good part Fidesz propaganda, but how much so? I was upset to say the least. After Trump’s election victory in 2016 against all the major polling reports, I think in general these polls have to be questioned internationally. But I am interested in what you are seeing.
I did read this report today https://telex.hu/valasztas-2022/2022/03/28/zavecz-research-fej-fej-mellett-az-ellenzek-es-a-kormanyoldal . Really the numbers are pretty radically different.
Try this interview with Karácsony, who started working for a polling company once. He very much describes the bad results of polling within Hungary and why the differences are that high. https://azonnali.hu/cikk/20220328_karacsony-gergely-teljes-hulyeseg-hogy-nincs-eselye-az-ellenzeknek-azt-is-elmondom-miert-interju
There is one hell of a lot of information in that interview and I have to say that I was deeply impressed that Karácsony retains that much information and data in his brain so he can orally respond like that. I found his assumption that the Ukraine war would not have a significant impact of the vote. I guess I read the Fidesz media too much, because their endless drumbeat about a joint opposition victory leading a direct involvement of Hungary in the war I would have assumed was based on some type of surveys or polling data behind this effort by Fidesz.
I want to thank you for sending that link out I learned a good amount. I too am very concerned about rioting as was discussed in the interview if Fidesz wins in a very close election largely based on Hungarian voters outside the borders, I could see Orban implementing a state of emergency for the full period of 15 days allowed under the constitution if that did happen. It could be a very bloody 15 days because it is unlikely Orban could find two-thirds of members of Parliament need for any extension, so there could be an urgency to crush the opposition in streets if that happened.
Demonstration for the free Ukraine (& against Orban)
time: April 2, 1:30 PM
location: Erzsebet bridge (Pest side)
https://www.facebook.com/events/1139203530206283
Born in Россия [=Rossiya=Russia]
Born down in a dead man’s town
The first kick I took was when I hit the ground
You end up like a dog that’s been beat too much
‘Til you spend half your life just coverin’ up
Born in Россия
I was born in Россия [=Rossiya=Russia]
I was born in Россия
Born in Россия
Got in a little hometown jam
So they put a rifle in my hand
Sent me off to a foreign land
To go and kill ukranian men
BUT
This land is their land and this land isn’t mine
From the Volyn Oblast to the Sea of Azov
From the Luhansk Oblast to the Black Sea waters
This land was made for her and him
SO
War – What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, say it again, y’all!
War – What is it good for?
Absolutely NOTHING!!!
War I despise
‘Cause it means destruction of innocent lives
War means tears to thousands of mothers’ eyes
When their sons go out to fight and lose their lives
War – What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing, say it again, y’all!
War – What is it good for?
Absolutely NOTHING!!!
Война – для чего она нужна?
Абсолютно ничего, повторите еще раз, вы все!
Война – для чего она нужна?
Совершенно ничего!!!
Heard the original song today on the radio, and with some brainstorming came to this medley to be sung to Russian soldiers, who on the Petit Poisoner’s order are already in or preparing to go to Ukraine.
In 1972 at the Battle of An Loc some South Vietnamese troops were playing the original song on what was an early cheap version of a smaller cassette player that evolved to be called a boombox. It was of course an anti-war song written in 1969 for the old Motown soul music label from Detroit Michigan.
I asked one of the ARVN officers if his troops should be playing that song at a time like this? He said why not, then he said in Vietnamese to me, “we are fighting a goddamn war aren’t we.” Hard to forget that it sticks with you and the song does too. The back up vocals on the original were done by the famous group the Temptations. I just played it on my system here in Chicago, still sound great.
Here is the original artist performing it in 2001 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wrZkHKANrNw
Here is the original artist performing it in 1969 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=01-2pNCZiNk pretty obvious many year latter he could still hit all the notes.
Here’s Starr with the ‘boss’ playing the 3rd part of the medley suggestion
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7GBMX0rTEc
And here’s the ‘boss’ playing the Woody ‘this machine kills fascists*’ Guthrie song, aka.2nd part of the medley suggestion, incl.his own “getting to the heart of it” introduction
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1yuc4BI5NWU
*oh, oh, that could get truly veszélyes for the current myghti lidur…
Fidesz has already received more than 100,000 “mail-in” votes
Dropped off at the Hungarian consulates of neighboring countries:
78,180 votes
mailed in to the Election Bureau:
28,754
The election authorities never disclose which consulates receive how many ballots or how big the sacks containing the ballots are.
In 2018, six days before the election, only 818 ballots were dropped off at the consulates.
Billions have been transferred from the Hungarian branch of the Russian SberBank to Granit Bank that was recently acquired by Orban’s son-in-law using funds of unknown venue.
https://444.hu/2022/03/28/tokaji-es-balatoni-gigaberuhazasok-zsilipeltek-at-az-orosz-sberbanktol-a-tiborcz-fele-granit-bankhoz
On April 1st, the number of refugees from Ukraine will have exceeded FOUR million people
entered Poland 2,293,833
entered Romania but did not enter Moldova 278,955
entered Moldova then entered Romania 316,913
entered Moldova but did not enter Romania 66,714
entered Hungary 354,041
entered Slovakia 275,439
entered Russia 271,254
entered Belarus 9,075
Total: 3,866,224
Source: calculated from UNHCR data
Number of opposition observers in the headquarters of the electoral districts:
zero: in 11 districts
one: in 88 districts
two: in 7 distrcits
https://telex.hu/valasztas-2022/2022/03/28/102-valasztasi-megfigyeloje-lesz-az-ellenzeknek-az-egyeni-valasztokeruletekben
102= 88+ 2*7
Ukraine claims that Russia has lost 1694 armored vehicles + 586 tanks so far.
Russia’s number for Ukraine’s loss is 1713 (armored vehicles + tanks).
Russia has finished replenishing its troops from the Far East regions. [President Xi, this is the time to capture Siberia!]
Russia has established a huge ammunition depot at the Chernobil nuclear power plant.
After a relative lull, new Russian offensives can be expected.
Russian army plans to capture the rest of DonBass, the territory southeast of the Dnieper river, the Kaniv hydroelectric power plant south of Kiev, and perhaps Odessa.
“The Ukrainian army could not carry out a similar regrouping and reinforcement. It still has a numerical advantage in the theater of operations and great mobilization possibilities, but it has lost a significant part of heavy weapons and military equipment (mainly aviation and air defense), and has recently been systematically deprived of fuel and ammunition and the possibility of repairing damaged weapons.
The support offered to it in the form of supplies of light weapons may prove INSUFFICIENT for the continued effective conduct of a defense operation.”
“The overriding goals of the Kremlin remain the destruction of the enemy’s military and economic potential, as well as forcing Kiev to surrender ”
https://www.osw.waw.pl/pl/publikacje/analizy/2022-03-28/atak-rosji-na-ukraine-stan-po-32-dniach
Don’t forget, Putin gave himself another 6 weeks to finish off the resistance of Ukraine. (Self-imposed deadline is May 9)
off topic but this morning I wake up to an email to the coronavirus vaccine information mailing list. Is it about the corona virus? Is it about the vaccine?
Here is my translation
It should be illegal for the government to use the coronavirus mailing list for campaigning for a single party’s pet issues.
I heard the news bulletin on “Retró Rádió” yesterday, 6 days before the election, and of course I heard Orbán speaking (without any comment from the opposition, no attempt at balance here) and basically he was saying that these elections are a choice between peace and war, and that he – unlike the opposition – certainly wouldn’t allow Hungary to get entangled in the Russia-Ukraine War…
There are 106 electoral districts, and 10000+ precincts inside Hungary.
Let Eij := the number of registered voters that can vote in district i for a candidate in district j.
(átjelentkezők). i, j = 1,2,…106.
There are also 100+ places outside Hungary from where one can vote for a candidate in electoral district i.
Let Ki := the number of registered voters that can vote for a candidate in district i
(külképviseletiek), i= 1,2,…106.
Numbers Ki appeared on March 27 on the official election website, but then disappeared on March 28.
Opposition representatives and foreign observers should demand that the National Election Bureau (or Office) should disclose each Eij and Ki number.