Originally published at: An Insider’s View of the Love Affair Between Hungary and the American Right - TPM – Talking Points Memo
The American right’s love affair with Hungary seemingly knows no bounds. Hungarian officials appear at GOP events; CPAC has a Budapest event. Hungarian President Viktor Orbán met with Donald Trump last month, and earned a dilatory shoutout from the Republican candidate at the RNC, where Trump called Hungary a “strong country, run by very powerful,…
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Hungarian faux-democracy is a political form of reality tv: The reality is that it’s about the ability to make up stuff and retain money + power, in addition to not being what it says it is (democracy). The tv-part is that narcissistic blowhards become the celebrity spokespeople for the machinery. Malleable morons eat it up. •••• Also notice that Hungary is a tiny, non-economic player on the world scene, yet Orban struts like a peacock implying that he is a critical Euro-mover/shaker. I predict that someday he will be hanging upside down from a streetlamp.
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I suspect what Trump loves most is Orban’s domination of the media. They dare not criticize him and know the path to staying alive is kissing his ass. Other than that how can the USA model itself after a country with less people in it than New York city and is economic midget?
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Therein lies the danger: Hungary as a confirmation of model leads to greater right-wing efforts in controlling legal and media systems but the US is too big and complex for these to succeed completely which amps up conflict.
Still, as Lawrence O’Donnell pointed out recently, Trump, and to a certain degree his minions, have succeeded in developing a lap-dog political press and this on top of wider Republican efforts to corrupt the legal system gives them enough proof of concept to carry on with the program.
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This is what Trump and the GOP want to impose here.
Charles Koch helped Pinochet set up another kind of faux-democracy in Chile. He has been using think tanks to develop legal weapons against democracy for decades.
This is why Trump has been saying nobody has to vote after 2024. This is what John Roberts, with his relentless hostility to voting, is comfortable with.
The world has utterly failed to neuter billionaires, so they have been capturing nations and turning them into their personal property. Your children will live to service Elon Musk’s flabby male children, or cast out onto the poisoned Earth to die.
Every billionaire is a threat to democracy.
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think tanks in the U.S.
If Donald is right and WWIII is right around the corner, the world might be coming for us – our fascism, our guns and violence (See: Bible, The), our business corruption, our environmental threat…
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A model for big-talking shites and thieves sitting on a pile of their daddy’s money.
But where did they get their inspiration?
The story of power down the ages.
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As long as they are able to hurt people they are in love.
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Last night (Thursday) O’Donnell had a scorching segment on Trump’s so-called press conference and how the press didn’t hold his feet to the fire as they usually do at press conferences. Perhaps that is what you have in the YouTube clip. It was awesome.
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Rick Wilson says that if Trump gets back in, he’ll expand the Supreme court and pack it with young loyalists who will cater to his every whim. Stare decisis is on life support now, with the current 6-3 ratio. More MAGA justices will snuff it forever.
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Scumbags of a feather flock together, being a minority the radical right wing traitors have to cozy up who ever will have them.
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We already have some of this. It doesn’t look like anyone dares to distribute that Trump bio flick. My prediction: after November, and he loses, that movie will magically appear.
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Some - all fallacy. If you said damn near every I’m with you.
Not that we shouldn’t tax them to eliminate billionaires.
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donnie is not a republican. That’s just a convenience as a path to power. He is only and always a “trumpian”… if I can put his illness that way.
Narcissist
Serial liar.
Convicted felon
Misogynist
trump first before anything else
Bad characteristics for a POTUS
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This is the central concept with him. Country and Constitution will never be first.
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Yup. The moment it becomes safe all the tough guys start getting brave.
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One thing I like about Tim Walz is he referred to Orban ad a "dictator ". Nobody else in US politics has been willing to state the obvious. I don’t know why Hungary isn’t kicked out of NATO and the EU.
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So it is as it is. They should be removed from NATO and the EU. Luckily, there would be an easy fill in for that gap, Ukraine.
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It’s not a direct line, but reading this article reminded me of something I saw this morning in the digital newspaper of the Florida town of my upbringing. I get the paper for my mom, who has dementia and doesn’t really read anymore but still likes having a paper. For me the digital version mainly provides a frightening glimpse into the descent of Florida (though on occasion I encounter coverage that doesn’t make my blood boil). I’ll just say that for all the things we read about DeSantis and the clown car that operates the state legislature, there is so much more beneath the surface that never becomes a national headline.
One thing happening in my hometown these days is the board of the state college is seeking a new president. Apparently there is now a “community input” segment to the board’s decision process, with two open houses scheduled in the next few weeks. In a saner world, the idea might not raise a brow. But seeing the ongoing political hatchet job they’ve taken to New College, which recently added a “scholar” to faculty advocating the actual physical return of Colonialism, I can’t help but think this is more an opportunity for local neo-fascists to fire up a “we here don’t want some highfalutin DEI hire poisoning our community” bonfire.
These people are dangerous, and becoming more so with each passing day.
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