“There’s nobody that’s better, smarter or a better leader than Viktor Orban. He’s fantastic…He’s a non-controversial figure because he says, ‘This is the way it’s going to be,’ and that’s the end of it. Right? He’s the boss. No, he’s a great leader.”
“You know who he’s meeting with today down in Mar-a-Lago? Orbán of Hungary, who’s stated flatly that he doesn’t thinks democracy works, he’s looking for dictatorship.
I see a future where we defend democracy, not diminish it.”
"The right wing’s fondness for Orbán springs from his having rejected democracy and replaced it in Hungary with what he calls an 'illiberal state.' Orbán and other far-right leaders working against democracy maintain that the central principle of democracy, equality before the law, undermines society."
"It permits immigration, which, in their minds, dilutes the 'purity' of a people, and it requires that LGBTQ+ individuals and women have the same rights as heterosexual men. Such a world challenges the heteronormative patriarchal world traditionalists crave."
"Orbán’s takeover of the press, elimination of rival political parties, partisan gerrymandering, capture of the courts, and control of Hungary’s government are not just ideological, though, but also economic. Corruption and the capture of valuable factories and properties for cronies have allowed Orbán and his allies to amass fortunes."
"To Donald Trump, Hungarian strongman Viktor Orbán is 'fantastic,' Chinese leader Xi Jinping is 'brilliant,' North Korea’s Kim Jong Un is 'an OK guy,' and, most alarmingly, he allegedly said Adolf Hitler 'did some good things,' a worldview that would reverse decades-old US foreign policy in a second term should he win November’s presidential election, multiple former senior advisers told CNN."
Noting that "Trump embraced an authoritarian the day after Biden fiercely defended democracy," David Rothkopf points out that the "2024 campaign began this week with a frightening distinction between the president’s promise to fight for fundamental American values and the ex-president’s villain worship."
As Trump met with Orbán and heaped praise on him….
"The Christian Nationalists’ God is petty, insecure, cruel, authoritarian. Their God, like their favored presidential candidate, demands above all else obedience and loyalty. Their God sees only a few as 'elect': Mike Johnson and his ilk, straight men, blastocysts and frozen embryos. All the others He casts out. Their God is not inclusive; their Paradise, a fascist state."
"For most of my life, American Christians were cheerleaders for democracy. That’s when we were in charge of the democracy.
Today, oddly, many conservative Christians no longer believe in or support democracy. They seem to favor a kind of theocracy or autocracy — so long as they have control. Anything they can’t control is called communism or Marxism, whether it really is or not."
"Large swaths of the church in America today are threatened by pluralism. Democracy implies pluralism, but for the first 200 years of our American experiment, pluralism was held in check by the powerful influence of dominant white Christian men and their enablers."
I'm absolutely terrified of what's going on in USA. The prospect of a criminal being elected, who will further remove citizens' rights and freedoms once he has secured their votes, ignore the constitution and norms of democracy with impunity.
The insanity of the "Christian" far right, with a brainwashed, uneducated support base and elite, monied corporate friends, will lead USA out of NATO and into an alliance with thug leaders around the world.
The free press will be silenced as in Hungary. Voting will become impossible as in China. Corruption will be rife as in India. Retribution will be a norm as in Russia.
NATO will be weakened giving Putin the green light to take Ukraine Moldova Lithuania Estonia and Poland. Any attempt to stop his advance in Europe will be met with a nuclear threat with zero support from an American former ally.
The election in USA is critical: a Trump win will herald in the end of global stability and we non Americans have zero voice to do anything about it.
@stevesilberman
From Australia I'm absolutely terrified of what's going on in USA. We have the prospect of a criminal being elected, who will further remove citizens' rights and freedoms once he has secured their votes, ignore the constitution and norms of democracy with impunity.
The insanity of the "Christian" far right, with a brainwashed, uneducated support base and elite, monied corporate friends, will lead USA out of NATO and into an alliance with thug leaders around the world.
The free press will be silenced as in Hungary. Voting will become impossible as in China. Corruption will be rife as in India. Retribution will be a norm as in Russia.
NATO will be weakened giving Putin the green light to take Ukraine Moldova Lithuania Estonia and Poland. Any attempt to stop his advance in Europe will be met with a nuclear threat with zero support from an American former ally.
The election in USA is critical: a Trump win will herald in the end of global stability and we non Americans have zero voice to do anything about it.
Sheer horror.
#McConnell endorses #Trump
🤬🤬🤬
The #Senate minority leader is the highest-ranking #Republican to back Trump, & the move could help the f⁕⚠︎er w/major #donors “It is abundantly clear that …Trump has earned the requisite support of Republican voters to be our nominee for President of the United States,” #MitchMcConnell said in a statement to The Washington Post.
#HELSINKI (AP) — NATO kicked off an exercise on Monday to defend its newly expanded #Nordic#territory when >20k soldiers from 13 nations take part in drills lasting nearly 2 wks in the northern regions of Finland, Norway & Sweden.
The police presence appeared heavy for the service. Some attendees shouted, “No to war” & “#Russia will be free” as they marched to the cemetery where the opposition leader was to be buried.
A photograph taken inside the church & shown on #Navalny’s YouTube channel showed him in an open coffin, lying in repose w/flowers over his body. His parents held lit candles. His widow, #YuliaNavalnaya, who has vowed to carry on his #political activities, & his children, Daria & Zakhar, who no longer
live in #Russia, did not appear to be present.
Almost 270k people were watching a livestream of the event… while ~150k watched coverage on YouTube….
The #Navalny team accused #Russia authorities of trying to prevent people from sharing photos & videos of the scene. Mikhail Klimaryov, dir of a Russian internet freedom group, the Internet Protection Society, said his group’s data showed that cellphone service in the area had been reduced to the lower-bandwidth 3G standard & described it as a “mobile shutdown.”
#POTUS Joe Biden was leading #Michigan's Democratic presidential primary contest Tues, as expected, w/the #ProtestVote against him pulling about 7% of the tally.
Biden had 88% of the vote, followed by 7% #uncommitted, 2% for Minnesota US Rep Dean Phillips & 2.4% for self-help guru Marianne Williamson, with 3% of precincts reporting.