CPACK started in Budapest! An illustrious group of right wingers was greeted first by some priests (and rabbis ...) and…
April 15th, 2023
As I am not part of any Catholic denomination or doctrine, there is no way I can relate to whatever…
Since Melania and Donald formally met with the Pope I suspect her transgressions may also have been forgiven.
Melania Trump is a Slovenian Catholic, but it is unclear if she attends mass at any parish. It is clear…
But wait, Donald Trump’s wife Melania hosted a closed-door fundraiser at Mar-a-Lago not long ago for the Log Cabin Republicans,…
Wolfi watching this war in Ukraine in real time with modern technology including translation programs for Ukrainian and Russian has been pretty astounding for myself and other retired US military officers. Older Soviet era Russian officers posting on Telegram channels seem astonished too.
Most of us were trapped in the fog of war when we were in the service and it was only subsequent military historians who could piece this together. But the volume of information coming out related to this war and disinformation from all sides in the war is incredibly challenging too.
I am amazed at what Putin can’t control in terms of social media discussions in Russia. For example just today the head of the Wagner group who has sent thousands to their deaths posted a big comment on Bakhmut that I will not link to because our host has requested that Russian sites not be used. Of course Yevgeniy Prigozhin lies about the slaughter of his own troops but he also argued that Russia had succeeded in killing a large number of military-aged Ukrainian men and pushed others to flee the country. Having seized a “fat chunk” of Ukrainian territory, the strategic option for Russia would be to lock down and defend those gains. Which is not at all what Putin has been advocating up to now.
Based on our late host Eva’s recommendation several years ago I use both Yandex.Translate and google for Russian and Ukrainian.
That way I can compare the translations. The fact she began to explore computerized translation programs into her 80s was really impressive.
If you want to have a really good laugh read the crazy comments on this report:
https://dailynewshungary.com/new-us-sanctions-against-hungary-a-lot-of-people-can-be-banned-soon/
There might be several of the trolls active there that we had on Eva’s HS.
The big question is, whether starting a public debate on the absent long term benefits of Fidesz’ political dispositions is possible at all, or if any debate just gets choked in stupid, paranoid and vile propaganda, as usual?
I think eventually it’s possible that some Hungarian nationals could be banned from the
USA, but not a large number of
them.
I think it’s not a good time for America’s ever right wing Trump supporters to be investing in Hungary, I could see Orban retaliating against any such bans.
Zsolt Hernádi from MOL who I suspect is somehow now making money on Russian oil evading sanctions should be among the first banned. He I believe actually has an outstanding warrant from the Croatian case Eva wrote about back in 2021. (https://hungarianspectrum.org/2021/10/25/mols-ceo-zsolt-hernadi-wont-be-gallivanting-around-the-globe-any-time-soon/)
Since Zolt has the status of a secular saint in Esztergom, due to his supposed generous investments in the town all of which he pocketed more money on. This comment would not sit well with my extended family there, nor with the Fidesz Mayor Ádám Hernádi his cousin.
Back in 2019 when Ádám Hernádi ran for office he openly said his cousin would help the town even more if he was elected. Indeed he helped bring American Trump supporters there for meetings and Fox News in the USA did features on Esztergom.
Now that Hungary went along with the Polish stop of grain import from Ukraine (Poland moved to keep prices up on the home market), an explanation from Hungary (not a big grain producer) is expected with some interest.
Do they now work together against the EU, or what?
The resulting situation is one of maintaining higher (and rising) retail prices in Poland and Hungary.
Of course, sales-taxes will benefit the states’ economies, but their inflation rate will stay high.
A public discussion on the value of such a decision is out of te question, I suppose.
I believe there are complaints about Ukrainian dumping of grain beyond Hungary and Poland. Romanian, Bulgarian, and Slovakian farmers are also angry at Ukrainian agricultural imports and have staged protests too.
I don’t get it!
Over the last months in Hungary you often couldn’t get flour – if you were lucky they’d let you take one or two kilos, not much for a larger family which wants to bake its own bread because bakery prices have become astronomical.
And now the governments are complaining that there is too much grain?
Maybe they could pay Ukrainian farms and sell that grain cheaply to people who need it in other parts of the world?
I haven’t heard about grain being “dumped” by Ukraine.
What the Western agricultural organizations in the EU note, is that the so called solidarity lanes, for overland export of grain and other crops into the neighboring countries, have caused an immediate over-supply there and a resulting drop in prices.
Appearently, the East Central countries aren’t quite capable of stepping up their export-logistics to this scale and want the EU to distribute the grain more evenly, further out in the EU.
A standard technical definition of dumping is the act of charging a lower price for the like product in a foreign market than the normal value of the product, for example the price of the same product in a domestic market of the exporter or in a third country market.
That is the claim being made by these protesting grain farmers. I honestly do not know what the relative price of grain is now in war torn Ukraine or even if it has a functioning grain market.
I do know the Under the World Trade Organization‘s Antidumping Agreement, dumping is not prohibited unless it causes or threatens to cause material injury to a domestic industry in the importing country. Dumping is also prohibited when it causes “material retardation” in the establishment of an industry in the domestic market.
That determination has not been made as far as I know and no formal complaint has been made to the WTO by any nation as yet. Slovakia followed Poland and Hungary today, both of which announced bans Saturday on Ukrainian food imports through June 30. The EU seems to be saying that these countries lack the authority to do this under the EU, but little attention is being paid to that.
Also there may be a real question about the involvement of massive grain companies like Cargill in shipping Ukrainian grain which they actually own and control. Cargill has been in Ukraine for some time see https://www.cargill.com/2021/cargill-becomes-majority-shareholder-of-its-joint-venture,
I do not know about other big grain trading firms that operate in Central Europe which are at least ADM, and Bunge. But I do know about Cargill because I have a close friend who is a Vice President of Cargill.
Basically world wide grain trading is a pretty closed world see https://www.oxfam.org/en/research/cereal-secrets-worlds-largest-grain-traders-and-global-agriculture.
When I became a Reserve US Army officer I worked full time as a risk manager in Chicago for a commodities trading firm for about 8 years. They were very good about my being called up periodically for active duty in particular.
Some of the larger firms traded massive amounts of futures contracts in the Chicago grain markets. Most of which is now done in computerized markets. None the less these are huge companies drove these markets internationally, so as part of my risk management job I watched their trading globally.
That was an incredibly stressful job, that paid well. I exited it for work in the not for profit sector and governmental lobbying while still a Reserve Army officer.
I know that ADM and Cargill have operations in Hungary. see https://www.cargill.hu/en/about-cargill and https://www.adm.com/en-us/search/?q=Hungary.
I thought this Telex article on this issue was pretty good https://telex.hu/kulfold/2023/04/17/europai-bizottsag-ukrajna-gabona-import-tiltas-magyarorszag-lengyelorszag
The (big) reductions in customs and EU import taxes given to the Ukrainian grain exporters seem to be the the main factors, that and the market supply-demand mechanism.
“Call for denunciation of rainbow families ….
… Hungarian citizens* are encouraged under the new law to report same-sex parents to local law enforcement agencies for violating the “constitutionally recognized role of marriage and family.” In addition to reporting rainbow families, the law also allows anonymous reporting of “anyone/anyone who denies or changes the true meaning of families defined in the Hungarian Constitution. …”
Whoever denies or changes the true meaning of families defined in the Hungarian Constitution … the punishment measure was not mentioned. The Gestapo will take care of it?
The combination of propaganda-grooming and nudging are proven tools, for getting a society to accept revised social and “humanitarian” values.
Will the Fidesz-associated social/administrative elite succeed in formally adopting Central-European inter-war views on purity and cleansing of a nation as a new and progressive direction?
Or, will they just stink all over the rhetoric?
The (large) EU should make a difference, but the hate-fuelled Hungarian-Polish nationalist bubbles remain inpenetrable by debate.
Whatever happens in the short run, the main point is that Hungary’s and Poland’s image in the EU have been totally destroyed so what ever idea they might present in the future will be ignored and ridiculed.
Fidesz was once a proud member of the conservative christian EPP -now they are hated by the CDU/CSU eg.
Of course essentially this means less money for the two countries, not good for the people but in the long run it might help them to wake up.
The mother of the nation sends the law back to parliament.
Katalin Novák returns the Act on the Protection of the Hungarian Way of Life to Parliament | 24.hu
😀 Dilettantish state theater from the Hungarian stamp-pad office. “of the basic values and rights contained in the Basic Law” what rights ? there are only duties in it.
The German SPIEGEL reports on this and explains that parliament will probably vote yes again on that horrible law. It also has several stories about trans and gay people and how they live in fear – even in Budapest.
https://www.spiegel.de/ausland/ungarn-praesidentin-blockiert-gesetz-gegen-lgbtq-a-8370c62d-7c21-40ea-bec9-3166a51dd3da
Funny in a way:
The readers are asked whether Hungary/Orbanistan should (be forced to …) leave the EU?
71% said Throw them out!
The Spiegel writes “This was the first time that a head of state objected to a law in the term of office of the right-wing populist Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, which has lasted since 2010” that is not true! This has a long tradition, her predecessor already made such games then racism immediately looks much more democratic.
Yesterday the eloquent Russian historian and opposition politician Vladimir Kara-Murza, whose mentor and friend was Boris Nemtsov, was sentenced to 25 years in prison for speaking out against the war and then returning to Russia.
He probably knew what his fate would be, but still ran towards danger and embraced it…
That’s what I call really brave!
Not many people would do that in these circumstances.
Vladimir Kara-Murza often wrote commentaries for the Washington Post that I read. Those articles stretch back five years. One thing that is very clear Kara-Murza understood Putin’s historical links to Stalin and the KGB repressive apparatus. See in particular this essay https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/democracy-post/wp/2017/12/28/putins-dark-cult-of-the-secret-police
Therefore he made pretty much a fully aware decision what his fate would be.
I honestly don’t understand why he stayed in Russia, possibly a form of secular martyrdom. As a Catholic taught the stories of the saints killed in the most horrible ways, I was also taught that what we called veneration of the Saints was only part of the reward for their sacrifice. The other part was an everlasting life in heaven. That as a child made sense to me.
But I can see no indication in Kara-Murza that he had any affinity to Christian martyrdom, maybe he thinks Putin will drop dead and everything will turn out ok in the end. But I can find no such optimism in the essays of his I have read over the last five years.
Maybe Kara-Murza sees his fate similarly to others in Russian literary tradition who live on though their writings.
“I honestly don’t understand why he stayed in Russia, possibly a form of secular martyrdom.”
I guess it’s difficult for us to understand, but Russia is his country and maybe he feels he has to try and fight his corner there, as a patriot. I guess you could say the same of Alexei Navalny – he also knew what was coming when he returned…
Kara-Murzy has also been poisoned twice in the past, you can see plenty of interviews with him on youtube, he speaks exceptionally good English, as does his wife Evgenia Kara-Murzy, who is still living in the States and does occasional interviews in which she tries to explain why he returned to Russia
I just read in Wikipedia that Senator McCain asked Kara-Murza, a few months before his death in 2018, to become one of his pallbearers. Wow…
That is correct and Kara-Murza was a pallbearer at funeral.
So France is a NATO ally that like Hungary promotes a peace deal in Ukraine. But unlike Hungary has provided lethal military aid to Ukraine. France 24 published an interesting essay on Ukraine’s objective of ultimately taking back Crimea and the danger of nuclear war related to that goal. (See https://f24.my/9NYQ)
Of course those of us who follow this war know Putin has fully fortified Crimea and it would require a massive invasion effort and enormous casualties to retake it along with a significant and sustained missile assault. As the France 24 article discusses: “Secretary of State Antony Blinken implied scepticism about Ukraine retaking Crimea on a private call with experts leaked to the press – saying Crimea is a “red line” for Russian President Vladimir Putin. While stressing that decisions about the war are Ukraine’s to take, Blinken told a congressional committee in March that Kyiv may want to think about using diplomacy instead of military offensives in trying to take back some parts of its territory.”
President Zelensky is essentially an actor who uses his skill to inspire his nation to resistance. But he does not seem to grasp there are limits to how far the USA and NATO will support Ukraine in recovering its lands illegally seized by Putin.
Please don’t underestimate the depth and scope of French intelligence.
In the still open and active, Western interfaces of Russian speaking people in Europe, Berlin and Paris are the hubs.
Unlike the Brits, the French tend to play bold and unexpected cards, while the Germans keep a low profile. Between them, so much is known that the Brits and Americans spy heavily on them in order to keep up.
„Foreign minister of Hungary, said on Monday at the Várkert Bazar that NATO lives in a bubble, but fortunately there is life outside the bubble, and there the overwhelming majority is the position represented by Hungary.“
If I interpret it, NATO cannot count on Hungary in case of emergency. Hungary decouples itself from reality by claiming the “missing” horizon of NATO, which the Hungarians would have. He presents his ideas of Béke és Biztonság in front of a Greater Hungary map. 😀
“Peace deal”
Tacitus:
“Auferre trucidare rapere falsis nominibus imperium, atque
ubi solitudinem faciunt, pacem appellant.”
Free translation:
They rob, slaughter, kidnap (using false names for these) and call it “empire” [government].
Where they make desert, they call it “peace”
Tacitus> De Vita et moribus Iulii Agricolae>30
https://lateinlex.de/?call=Puc&permalink=Tac_Agr_30
or
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0084%3Achapter%3D30
In most Western European media, public evaluation of Putin’s “Great Russia” project has been speculative and subject to western criteria of balanced debate, at least since 2007 – until 2014 and later, the invasion of Ukraine, after which the West became wise to Putin’s real intentions.
In the USA, the freedom of speech=freedom to lie-doctrine in public media, only made things much worse and still serve to complicate Western communication.
Hungary remains the “dark spot” on the EU and Nato map and considering the (virtually) unlimited levels of Russian involvement in all aspects of Hungarian affairs, infrastructure and administration, it will most probabably be the first country to experience complete blackout (severing of digital cables) should a major conflict between Russia and Nato arise – unless encrypted analogue communication with Nato partners is established and functioning.
Ukrainian Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Malyar said yesterday that the goal of the coming Ukrainian spring offensive would be would be aimed at liberating all of Ukraine’s territory under Russian occupation. ( https://suspilne dot media/449784-ukraina-otrimala-zrk-patriot-vid-nimeccini-polsa-rozblokue-tranzit-ukrainskogo-zerna-420-den-vijni-onlajn/?anchor=live_1681904121&utm_source=copylink&utm_medium=ps).
That is a huge goal and if it is not just an aspirational goal could be very dangerous because of the possibility of Russian counterattacks or use of tactical nuclear weapons against the Ukrainian armored spearhead. I suspect that the US Department of Defense officials who based on the leaked documents predict limited territorial gains for the spring offensive were shaking their heads when they read that and are hoping it was just Ukrainian war propaganda.
The recapture of Sevastopol is unlikely to be an immediate topic on the agenda of the Ukrainian General Staff. Thus, it is probably propaganda.
This article sheds some more light on the close Hungarian relations with Turkey and the Organisation of Turkic States (OTS) :
Isolated in Europe, Orban Leans on Turkic Allies in the East | Balkan Insight
The “Big empty spot” in Hungarian politics (the war) in neighboring Ukraine, casts a heavy shadow of doubt over the goverment – The assumed Turkish peace stance, only serves to isolate Hungary further from its EU and Nato partners, as Hungary might well be politically useful to Erdogan, but what could Orbán and Hungary gain by appending Hungary to the Turkish agenda?
I suspect in the dark recesses of the mind of Orban there is a vision of him parading through Berehove on a white horse.
Blocking with Erdogan on the issue of the Kurds of course impedes brining Sweden into NATO and is beneficial to Putin.
A complete victory by Russia over Ukraine could of course result in a Russian “award” of a narrow strip of Transcarpathia to Hungary in return for services rendered to Putin. Such a complete victory by Russia seems highly unlikely, but it’s not totally impossible.
Regent Horthy while accepting awards of land from Hitler amazingly correctly predicted Germany’s eventual defeat in a face to face meeting with Hitler in 1939. Hitler reportedly shouted at Horthy “Nonsense! Shut up!” and Horthy left the meeting.
Horthy’s own obsession with restoring greater Hungary eventually overcame his correct analysis of the outcome of a German war with the UK backed by the USA. Maybe it’s actually similar for Orban?
„A complete victory by Russia over Ukraine could of course result in a Russian “award” of a narrow strip of Transcarpathia to Hungary in return for services rendered to Putin. Such a complete victory by Russia seems highly unlikely, but it’s not totally impossible.“
Even if Putin were to win, he could not simply give parts of Ukraine to Hungary. They would not be accepted internationally as Hungary. Hungary’s neighbors would certainly not be amused either.
„I suspect in the dark recesses of the mind of Orban there is a vision of him parading through Berehove on a white horse.“ The godlike welcomes his slaves …
If you are a teacher in Hungary you are only allowed to whisper …
„Teachers will be banned to criticize the Hungarian education system or Christian values both offline and online, inside and outside of the school. In case they do so, their salaries can be cut and they can even be fired. Phones and laptops can be regularly inspected. (3/7)“
This article https://telex.hu/kulfold/2023/04/21/macron-tajvan-biden-hszi-invazio-haboru-elrettentes-strategiai-erdek-egyesult-allamok-kina written by R. Tamás Mészáros is well thought out. It’s supposedly about Macron’s warning to European’s stay out of a U.S. fight to defend Taiwan against a Chinese invasion., but goes farther than that I thought.
Mészáros does not seem to be aware in this article of how the U.S. military and CIA views the potential for a Chinese war with the USA. It is seen within both of those institutions as something close to inevitable by many.
In fact the novel Ghost Fleet written by PW Singer and August Cole about a war initiated by China against the USA was widely read and praised by U.S. officers. I too read it and discussed it with other retired officers in a book group. Overall most of us believed some of the novel contained very real possibilities. In fact there were some naval and air force officers who advocated for a U.S. preemptive nuclear attack on China before their military became too formidable. Mészáros seems unaware of the latent fear of another Peal Harbor in the US military.
Jens Stoltenberg said to Ukraine „Your place is in NATO“ 🙂 Orban says „What?!“ his Trianon hides are swimming away.
This commentary https://magyarnemzet.hu/ahelyzet/2023/04/amerika-a-baratunk by Otto Gajdics from the Fidesz TV propaganda station HirTv unleashed on US ambassador Pressman.
He writes that Pressman came to Hungary “as a political activist, … allied with the Biden administration to overthrow the national government he disliked.”
I have some bad news for Gajdics, if a decision had been secretly made by Biden and the US National security council to implement regime change in Hungary the weapon of choice would not be a “poster campaign” reminding the current generation of Hungarians of what Russia did to Hungary in 1956.
What is indeed frightening for Fidesz propagandists is Pressman was so easily able to get Orban to back down on the spy bank and also I suspect that it was revealed by a leaked CIA documents that Orban’s international dealings with Putin’s regime are being spied on. By the way the Fidesz controlled media has been totally silent about CIA spying on Orban.
What could be next? Hidden assets of Fidesz politicians exposed in Panama? It is pretty obvious that when the USA seized Panama, with the use of an actual armed invasion, we left behind an off shore banking industry welcoming all sorts of crooks that the CIA knew all about because their friends owned the banks. The USA also knows a great deal about money hidden in Swiss banks, Luxembourg, Malta, Cypress, and elsewhere.
Where all this could be going is unnerving for a man of the apparatus like Gajdics. You now have a formidable opponent in the US Ambassador. I think it’s about time really.
I read “Pressman, who is gay, is married and has twin sons”! He is, so to speak, the natural enemy of a breeding bull who has taken up the cause of subjugation. I think David Pressman does a better job than his predecessor, whom the youth would call a goth.
This article https://www.politico.eu/article/victor-orban-enemy-david-pressman-united-states-ambassador-to-hungary-lgbtq/ published well prior to the actions against the Russian spy bank provided a reasonably good overview of Ambassador Pressman.
In our little part of Chicago (called Andersonville)we have the second highest concentration of LBTQ residents in the city.
So it is very normal to see LBTQ family units here. But the economic demographics of members of the LBTQ community living where our home is in a family units with children is extremely high income, also a majority white.
This report https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/11/census-bureau-survey-explores-sexual-orientation-and-gender-identity.html provides the best picture of the US LBGTQ community.
Overall LBGTQ people in the USA are qualitatively poorer than non-LBTQ people. So in the US census survey we can read “ 13.5% of LGBT respondents lived in a household that experienced food insecurity compared to 7.4% of non-LGBT respondents.”
Ambassador Pressman because of education and skills is in the upper crust of America’s LBTQ community. Here in Chicago there is some tension between socio-economic groups in the LBTQ community. (See https://www.nbcnews.com/think/opinion/white-gay-privilege-exists-all-year-it-particularly-hurtful-during-ncna1024961)
The exclusion of people, e.g. homosexuals, has existed for as long as there has been a church, the Catholic church. Why do we have to publicly denounce homosexuals – to exclude them. You can take anything – skin color, creed, location, ancestry, socialization, etc., etc. ? In the past anno domini they didn’t have a word for it, today it’s the memory of fascism.
Sexual discrimination and demonisation (not least) is a mainstay of all the dominant religions, regardless of the direction.
The exceptions are some of the politically (modern Western) democratically moderated state-churches and autonomous congregations, and the few pantheistic and truly Unitarian communities.
In my experience, the Catholic Curches are far from the most discriminatory and demonizing of the lot.
Today they are not the worst but they were the first to use it to grow up.
Evangelical religious groups in the USA are far worse than Catholic Churches in the USA. Really the only penalty for LBTQ Catholics now is being denied the sacrament and church officiated weddings.
My wife and I did not get married in a Catholic Church because of the pledge we would have had to make for our future kids to be raised Catholic.
I still am formally a Catholic in good standing, really in the Chicago diocese thre are no longer excommunications.
When the church likes it, they do what they want because they can and claim it is God’s will. Especially in Hungary where I am not sure who is the God here …
The Church Also likes money. Since I contribute to Catholic charities much is forgiven.
🙂 Yes, the sale of indulgences still works, hope remains, hope that they do not lie to you too much.
Orbanistan is really crazy!
Just two examples:
the number of Russians with dipolmatic immunity in Hungary is around (or even more than …) 100 – Britain or Germany have around 30 of that kind of people.
The speaker of the government Balázs Orbán (not related to Viktor) spoke at a meeting of the extreme right in the USA, the “Heritage Foundation”.
Of course Fidesz would be happy if deSantis was elected US president – he’s just a homophobe racist fascist like Hungary’s ***expletive deleted***.
https://dailynewshungary.com/orban-hungary-is-a-safe-place-for-us-conservatives/
Would Orbán be kind enough to offer him a new job?
Tucker Carlson leaves Fox News, network announces – live (theguardian.com)
😀 In Hungary servants are wanted how about english teacher?
He could perhaps consider defecting, and land a good job in The Eurasian Economic Union, which Hungary is eager to make free-trade agreements with.
Loved this cartoon Michael.
Misi bácsi
Unaired Fox News Interview
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_nFI2Zb7qE
During his interviews in Hungary I never heard Tucker Carlson even try and use any Hungarian phrases. But he did pronounce names of people correctly from what I saw and heard of his broadcasts from Hungary.
Overall Tucker Carlson seems well schooled in phonics and no doubt has names on his teleprompter written out phonetically.
But really Carlson is rich, he reportedly earned between $15 million and $20 million per year by Fox in his last contract, prior to that about $6 million a year. His current net worth is likely $30 million according to the newspapers. No doubt he had a formal severance agreement built into his contract and will be making serious money from Fox payments for years to come.
Tucker Carlson is a pretty skilled demagogue. I usually get a transcript of his shows that interest me.
His rapid fire presentation method just makes it impossible to understand his lying and distorting easily. His shows are also highly edited with visual clips.
Carlson’s senior executive producer, Justin Wells, has also been terminated, according to insiders.
It is totally possible Carlson will create his own syndicated cable TV show depending on if he and his lawyers agree to some type of non-compete agreement with Fox (see https://www.investopedia.com/terms/n/noncompete-agreement.asp).
It seems to me, that allowing proven habitual liars and political arsonists like Carlson (others) access to public media, is a badly misunderstood interpretation of freedom of speech. Of course, if a badly crippled democracy is the goal, it’s probably the best way to achieve just that. And combined with the lenient attitudes to gun ownership?
Any talk about protecting democracy in such an enviroment is obviously highly academic.
Cable media under US law is not considered fully public in the USA. The Feds regulate to a much greater degree the over the air broadcasts. It’s pretty complex (see https://www.fcc.gov/media/engineering/cable-television)
Now cable in the USA is being destroyed gradually by the high speed internet providers, that will cause yet more complexities. It’s really a mess over here now. Plus we have Fox controlling the Wall Street Journal and the owner of Amazon owning the Washington Post. The media industry is in the USA is also laying off thousands of people right now too.
With so many people intent on believing made up news and other stories to suit their tastes, and big money to be made providing those products, it must be difficult to obtain concensus on any issue at all.
I get the impression that marketing and show business people, more or less, control the agenda in US media.
Where will this go?
The situation is similar all over the world. In the USA you have Faux Lies, New York Post and Washington Times (Ain’t that a nice coincidence?), in GB the Daily Mail etc, Germany has the Bild aka Blöd ans Switzerland has Blick.
Wait, Hungary has also BLick – and Bors and …
There will always be a lot of people who want simple answers but in the future we’ll probably see chatbots for this everywhere on the internet.
But with a little bit of brain it’s usually easy to divide the news into true and false – especially from these sources.
Of course it will be interesting to see how this develops as AI is getting even cleverer.
The regime only sees chances to keep power with punishments and new laws taking away the rights of the people, encouraging to denunciation and other dirty tricks. The EP recognizes this danger and is urging Ushi to react with not sending money.
Overall, the directions of the regime and the EU are opposite.
I do not think a Huxit is likely.
I am wondering if the regime can keep up the propaganda of being the “innocent” and passive victim in this game and can take the Hungarians with them in their downfall.
Megbírságolták Nagykároly polgármesterét a Kölcsey-szobor miatt (nepszava.hu)
I found the article titled in translation “ A country riddled with drilled wells – From the beginning of next year, unauthorized water extraction would have been punished, but the Orbán government backs down” very interesting too.
We own a cabin on our Wisconsin forest property and had to have a new well put in, the taxes were very high as were the environmental tests required. This our cabin is near Native American land, owned Ho- Chunk tribe it became even more complex.
Because my wife is a member of another tribe, the Seneca Nation of the Iroquois Confederacy, we were shown some deference by the Ho-Chunk tribal council.
Responding to Wolfi from below, yes you are correct that the merger of entertainment, fact and fiction is happening internationally. A major news source in the USA, ABC news is owned by Disney. Which is all about fantasy, theme parks, and it’s old cold warrior founder Walt Disney.
Walt Disney was in truth a crazy anti-communist who said about an attempt to unionize his artists that it was organized by communists. He even helped purge communists from the US film industry supporting fully what is called in the USA McCarthyism.
Now in irony of all ironies Disney Corporation is under attack by Republicans for opposing a Florida law prohibiting instruction in sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through third grade. Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis responded by signing a bill revoking Disney’s self-governing status, a unique arrangement in which the company operated like an independent fiefdom within the state.
I was raised as a hard anti-communist ideologically driven by my Hungarian Catholic upbringing. I was as a young US Army officer eager to fight communists in Vietnam and came back questioning many things. I had many more revelations during my own involvement in the US invasions of Both Panama and Grenada. I question many things today called news in the USA, or Russia, or Hungary now.
Much of what is presented as objective analysis by more less liberal or even further left news sources can also be deconstructed as ideologically driven. Now in my 70s I have many doubts about news stories from every source, and try to seek out alternative sources to draw some sort of a balanced perspective.
Commercial European tv and internet media tend to adopt American formats.
I guess it’s a consequence of adopting commercially available software and marketing tools developed in the US, with cosmetic adaptations for foreign markets – Which is a pity, because the European public hasn’t been subjected to the strong commercial grooming performed by US media during the 50’s through the 80’s, until the mid-80’s, when commercial media gained national coverage rights in the EU.
By then, journalistic standards of the big American media operators had dropped dratically as mass production of commercial entertainment took over the tv-market. All for the purpose of keeping viewers’ attention to the screen, while stuffing commercial content down their throats.
Today, the media commercialize politics and social relations without restraint and with the help of algorithms, cynically focused on making more money.
Generally speaking, there is about 80% of unrefined garbage for viewers and followers to sort through.
Fortunately, a few publically controlled national media in the West still maintain higher standards. They are behind the purely commercial media on entertainment value (no Twitter feeds, “breaking” bars and pop-ups – just information and documentation), but they excell at quality.
Russians convicted of treason can be sentenced to life behind bars, according to a bill passed on Wednesday by the Russian Federation Council, the upper house of parliament.
It appears to be aimed at Alexei Navalny who according to his spokesperson Kira Yarmysh wrote in a Twitter post on April 11 that Navalny lost eight kilograms over the course of 15 days in his isolated prison cell. Navalny’s team has also reported that he has been experiencing severe stomach issues in prison, and suggested that he may have been poisoned again.
Conservative Political Action Conference [CPAC], organized in co-operation with OV’s Center for Fundamental Rights, will be held 2023.May.04-05 near Felcsút, Hungary
The line-up, so far:
der myghti lidur ‘imselluf [HU], Andrej Babis [CZ], Eduardo Bolsenaro [BR], Janes Jansa [SVN], Herbert Kickl [AT], Martin Helme [EST], and many Republicans [USA]…
source: https://twitter.com/panyiszabolcs/status/1649717003026874368
United They Stand or…
soon may play ball behind bars!
Is Tucker not coming?
That’s a good one and interesting! Will *ucker make it? Or will he even become the new boss of the extreme right because Fox is too woke?
And now I have to correct Istvan re
“there is about 80% of unrefined garbage for viewers and followers to sort through.”
Famous Science Fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon (one of my favourites)defined the law which law says:
90% …
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sturgeon%27s_law
Tucker Carlson reportedly has hired a law firm to sue Fox. But they will no doubt try to reach a settlement for a severance payment.He comes from a wealthy family on top of the money Fox paid him for years. So I suspect he will not need to quickly take a job.
Based at least on Carlson’s emails that became public during the lawsuit against Fox by the voting machine company, Carlson believed privately none of Trump’s rhetoric and thought he was a useful idiot.
Not one word have I seen about any Carlson’s thinking about Orban in his private emails. I would bet Carlson had a pretty low assessment of Orban privately.
Tucker Carlson is a profoundly cynical man, but his many right wing followers think all the emails showing his cynicism are fake and Tucker was setup by the deep state controlled by Soros and similar liberal Jews.
*ucker is/wasn’t a politician, all in te line-up are
nevertheless, he might be present as cheerlidur of the [future behind bars] bunch
Believe it or not, Carlson and like-minded others have such a hold on an incredible number of Americans, that they make out a major falange in the political landscape of the US.
Who would have thought that a bunch of liars and con artists would ever achieve that? But it happens as we speak.
Something obviously went very wrong over there, somewhere along the line.
I have pointed to the cynical business aspects in news coverage, but the receptive part of that equation must be taken into account as well.
It’s a big mess, to put it mildly.
It is only in the realm of the possible that former President Trump will get criminally convicted of anything and do actual time in prison. But it’s not impossible.
Tucker Carlson is a performance artist, not a journalist. His shows were scripted by editors and of course Carlson when necessary uses multiple takes edited to create his nightly show on Fox.
Rupert Murdoch and his team were fully aware of what Carlson was airing every night and did nothing to stop him until it was proven to him the freedom of the press does not protect his company from presenting lying as news and commentary.
Rupert Murdoch and his son are the greatest crooks in all of this.
I watched on my Hungarian television feed Pope Francis today in Hungary. I was somewhat shocked that the Pope cited and quoted from the so called Admonitions of Hungary’s Saint Stephen.
Based on modern scholarship it is very possible that Admonitions of Hungary’s Saint Stephen are a forgery or at least an interpolated and stylistically polished text.
On this see Nemerkényi, E. . (2020). Review of Scholarship on the Admonitions of King Saint Stephen of Hungary . Acta Classica Universitatis Scientiarum Debreceniensis, 44, 151–158. I honestly was surprised Pope Francis did that, the controversy is well known within the Church.
The open combat between Saint Stephen and pagans
Is pretty well documented. King Saint Stephen was originally a pagan named Vajk from the royal House of Árpád. As a young Catholic boy around seven years of age I was taught by our priest the story of how Stephen had to fight for the “Christian” throne against his relative, Koppány, who was supported by large numbers of mostly pagan warriors.
Our priest fairly graphically explained to us that Koppány, who held the title Duke of Somogy, had for many years administered the regions of Transdanubia south of Lake Balaton. After Koppány was defeated his body was dismembered and parts displayed at the gates of the forts of Esztergom, Győr, Gyulafehérvár, and Veszprém in order to threaten all of those who were conspiring against the young Christian King of Hungary. That story always has stuck with me as a young impressionable child.
What is odd in all of this is today’s Catholic Church under Pope Francis has apologized for the forced conversions of native people in the America’s in particular by Spanish Catholics as an abomination yet the crushing of paganism in Central Europe is not presented that way in the least. It is in fact still presented as a positive good leading to the consolidation of the Kingdom of Hungary.
I am not a promoter of Hungarian pagan cults, but hypocrisy within my Church still is rampant as it relates to the conversion process in Europe. I suspect Pope Francis is willing to denounce the brutality of the conversion process in the third world because of modern scholarship of western imperialism, but not for western and Central Europe because of complexities like the Holy Roman Empire that mix together religion and the consolidation of Kingdoms.
In a religion where everyone is accepted except gays, anything is possible. Out of charity, the Orban regime has pardoned a national terrorist.
P.S. On forced Christianization, I think the Pope’s visit to Orbania makes a mockery of the whole thing.
Even wiki shows (in)famous St Istvan as a horrible killer and ugly person – orbán and the Pope would probably really like to repeat him and his atrocities.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stephen_I_of_Hungary
And he’s called a Saint???
“would probably” in a way they do. They are not pouring lead into ears to spread fear, but they are spreading fear to maintain power … and the pope is going along with it … in a way. The church also needs the fear so that it has popularity.
Do you mean this link Review of Scholarship on the Admonitions of King Saint Stephen of Hungary
This is probably a matter of reasonable doubt. King Saint Stephen is not known for his subtlety when it came to his power. History suggests that Stephen had a, let’s say Pope, powerful Christian fighter on his side and financed it. In return, he became “Christian.
The Hungarian Ministry of National Defense announced yesterday that in “2023/2024. starting from the academic year, in addition to the already successful cadet program, a new high school subject that can be chosen at the expense of the free time frame of high schools creates the opportunity for young Hungarians to get to know in more detail the civic obligations related to the defense of the homeland. In addition to getting to know the most important national defense organizations and tasks, young people participating in the education of the subject can gain theoretical and practical knowledge in the fields of cyber defense and cartography, among other things, and acquire other practical knowledge as well.” (my translation)
This appears very similar to what is called in the USA Junior Reserved Officer training corp classes at the high school level. I was in the JROTC in high school, then in ROTC in college, and then became a commissioned US Army officer upon graduation from high school. Then was sent to Vietnam after Vietnamese language training in Texas and was thrown into immediate combat as a US adviser to the South Vietnamese Army in the Battle for the provincial town of An Lộc where possibly 10,000 were killed and 15,000 wounded from the communist forces ( People’s Army of Vietnam PAVN) and the South Vietnamese Army had 2,280 killed and another 2,091 missing (most likely blown apart and not identified), The US Army personnel formally listed as killed or wounded in this Battle were Brigadier General Richard Tallman, Lieutenant Stanley Kuick, Major Richard Benson, First Lieutenant Richard Todd, and Lieutenant Colonel William B. Nolde, the last American who died in Vietnam before the negotiated cease-fire went into effect. A number of US Army advisers including my self were also wounded in the Battle, but not severely.
The article about this new High School level cadet program in Hungary presents it as a great opportunity for young Hungarians, but could also evolve into actual warfare for these kids pretty fast after graduating from high school or college if things go the wrong way in Europe. On the other hand my own daughter now a Lt Col in the US Army reserves never was put into a combat situation until years after completing college. It’s a roll of the dice when and if any member of an Army will see combat.
Even Telex presents this new program at the high school level as pretty non-violent, see https://telex.hu/belfold/2023/04/28/honvedelmi-miniszterium-honvedelem-tantargy-oktatas-kozepiskola as sort of an option for these students.
Correction I was commissioned after graduation from college not high school.
When I read Telex everything is going well in Hungary.
„”Thanks to the course, young people will gain knowledge about defence that they can use in their everyday lives,” the ministry said in a statement.“
Knowledge about defence that they can use in their everyday lives? Orban style?
Telex ran another interesting article about the Pope’s visit https://telex.hu/belfold/2023/04/29/ferenc-papa-rozsak-tere-menekultek-szegenyek on the Pope’s visit. The article emphases on the Pope’s message about accepting all refugees.
The article sort of avoided how Pope Francis’ back handed an endorsement of Orban’s peace proposal for Ukraine.
Telex did an earlier article about possible differences between the peace plan of Orban and the Pope see https://telex.hu/belfold/2023/03/10/orban-viktor-ferenc-papa-vatikan-magyarorszag-fegyverszallitas-orosz-ukran-haboru.
Both the Pope and Orban call for a ceasefire in place, effectively allowing for continued Russian occupation of Ukrainian territory. The only difference is the Pope does not oppose the west arming Ukraine to defend itself like Orban does, but the Pope is ambiguous about if those provided weapons should be used to launch offensives against the Russians.
I see this visit unfortunately being a big positive for Orban’s fake peace plan. Currently given the bloodbath stalemate there is some growing interest in just supporting an unconditional ceasefire.
The Pope also tried to use Saint Elizabeth of Hungary and Saint Stephen to bolster his arguments for accepting more refugees.
I discussed my issues with Saint Stephen our Hungarian Saint warrior King yesterday, but Elizabeth is a more compassionate figure who as a very young widow did show some compassion for the poor and sick based on some legitimate history. (She was married at age 14 in 1221 and a widow by 1227. Then she was in big trouble with relatives stealing her money and effectively imprisoning her.)
But her required miracle needed for Sainthood was one of more contrived of those I was required to read about in my Catechism studies as a child.
It is called a a miracle of the roses is which is a miracle in which roses manifest an activity of God or of a saint. There are many of them, the roots are in Greco-Roman pagan religious practices.
Pope Francis understands all of this and apparently has no problem with using St Elizabeth to try and make his points to Hungarian Catholics about being open and caring about the poor and refugees.
But the Pope so far on this trip has not even touched on how Orban promotes racism and intolerance in his refugee and homelessness policies in Hungary.
As an indoctrinated Catholic I am used to hearing priests try and use various Saints to inspire us to do better things. But here we have a Pope who knows better, who has denounced some of the racist practices of the Church in supporting slavery, who is not even trying to expose the root of Orban’s refugee policies. It’s deeply disappointing for myself who agreed with many of the things Francis has said about the legacy of racial oppression and forced religious conversion by the Church in Latin America, and in other places in the world.
The Pope must be informed about how Orbán speaks warmly in support of the Orthodox Church and the Turkic states. Perhaps for that reason he hesitates to openly criticize a rising (Hungarian) Fascistoid state and its capricious leader, which would no doubt have a negative effect on the Church.
Pope Francis visited Pázmány Péter Catholic University on the last stop of his stay in Hungary. In the Pope’s speech he made a reference to a Catholic writervand novelist whom he has said everyone should read, Robert Hugh Benson, author of Lord of the World, who has written about his own spiritual journey from being an Anglican and son of the archbishop of Canterbury to becoming a Roman Catholic priest. My opinion of the novels of Benson is pretty low.
Benson’s novel, Lord of the World (1907), is generally regarded by scholars as one of the first modern dystopian novels. The book is set in the year 2007 and he predicted, the Anglican Church and other Protestant denominations have crumbled and disappeared under a rising tide of secularism and atheism, leaving an embattled Catholic Church as the sole champion of Christian truth. Nations are armed with weapons which can destroy a whole city from the air within minutes, and euthanasia is widely practiced and considered as a moral advance. The Antichrist is depicted as a charismatic secular liberal who organizes an international body devoted to world peace and love under his direction. I actually read this novel as part of a Catholic book club while on active duty in the US Army, it was pathetic in my non-expert opinion. The fact that one of my Church’s most progressive Pope’s is peddling this stuff in Hungary is deeply disappointing.
The Pope then stated in his speech (my translation) “In Hungary, ideologies that presented themselves as truth, but did not give freedom, followed one another. And this danger has not disappeared today either: I am thinking here of the transition from communism to consumerism.” Now while under the rule of Mátyás Rákosi it could be argued that Hungarian communism was somewhat ideologically hostile to western consumerism, that was far the case under János Kádár, in fact because of the adoption of 1966, of New Economic Mechanism, which moved away from a strictly planned economy. This I thought was brilliantly discussed by Janos Kornai in his book “The Socialist System: The Political Economy of Communism.”
Kornai in this book shows that many elements of what the Pope describes as consumerism were introduced to Hungary by Kadar, and they created a crisis within the socialist system of Hungary eventually. Kornai wrote his book as he said for the citizens transitioning into a full market economy to help them understand the world they were transitioning into based on the contradictions of the old system. It is more than obvious that the Pope has a fairly superficial understanding of how transition worked in Hungary. Robert Hugh Benson’s novels are not a good basis for trying to understand the transition from communism to capitalism.
Thanks Istvan – but no thanks!
Never heard of this catholic novel before but I find it amusing – totally ignoring the history of the church with all its torturings and killings and of cours the sexual misbehaviour. The author must have been far from reality …
PS:
The fact that the pope recommends reading this seems outrageous to me, but ok I’m not interested in this ***expletive deleted*** anyway
The pope should read Biedermann and the Arsonists once, good contribution wolfi
The book reference is a smoke-screen.
The Pope did dish out a tidbit of sorts.
Quote from the Guardian:
“Pope Francis has said that the Vatican is involved in a peace mission to try to end the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. “I am willing to do everything that has to be done. There is a mission in course now but it is not yet public. When it is public, I will reveal it,” Pope Francis told reporters during a flight home after a three-day visit to Hungary.”
Depending on political orientation, this could be interpreted in different directions – I like to think he just pulled the rug under Orbán’s peace narrative.
Erdogan caims credit for US hit on IS leader-apperant.
It could work for his hampered campaign – just now.