He brings back into focus all the adverse baggage that adheres to him. Trump and his minions are about money, never about governance. So, when they act as consultants they are making money and the governance that results is ungovernable as demonstrated in the USA with out of control everything. They deregulate and stand back to let chaos prevail.
...Others want a global fight over free speech....
Brazilian congressman Eduardo Bolsonaro, the president’s son, has visited Florida since the Oct. 30 vote, meeting Trump at Mar-a-Lago and strategizing with other political allies by phone. He spoke with former Trump strategist Stephen K. Bannon, who was in Arizona assisting the campaign of GOP gubernatorial candidate Kari Lake, about the power of the pro-Bolsonaro protests and potential challenges to the Brazilian election results, Bannon said. He lunched in South Florida with former Trump campaign spokesman Jason Miller, now CEO of the social media company Gettr, and discussed online censorship and free speech, Miller said....
...Viktor Orbán (click here) wins elections and claims a democratic mandate, but his legislative maneuvers and rewrites to the constitution have rendered political opposition increasingly powerless. Marantz finds the admiration for him from many on the American right unsettling. “I couldn’t really imagine a Putin-style takeover” of power in America, Marantz says, but “this kind of technical, legalistic Orbán model” seems all too plausible.
BUDAPEST,- Hungary will ratify Sweden's and Finland's accession to NATO (click here) before Turkey, Prime Minister Viktor Orban's chief of staff told a briefing on Wednesday.
Hungary and Turkey are the only members of the alliance who have not yet cleared the accession. The Hungarian government has submitted the relevant legislation to parliament but it has not yet been tabled for debate and vote.
...First, “ethnic minorities” (click here) in the United States and Central and Eastern Europe are not comparable. To stick with the Hungarian example, there are approximately 2 million ethnic Hungarians who live in Hungary’s neighbor countries whose mother tongue is Hungarian. They became citizens of these states as a result of the border changes after the two world wars, including some 150,000 ethnic Hungarians in Subcarpathia. The borders moved, not the people. My great-grandfather, for instance, was born in 1919, and was the citizen of five different states without leaving his village in today’s South Slovakia where his ancestors lived for centuries.
In contrast, American minorities, with the exception of African Americans, the Native American population and Hispanics living in the Southern states, became minorities as a result of their own decision by immigrating to the U.S. Therefore, it is a legitimate expectation that they adjust to the norms of their chosen homeland and use the English language in public relations, and even then, non-English languages are often accommodated. But forbidding people to use their mother tongue in their own homeland, just because it came under the authority of a different state due to geopolitical events, is a whole different ballgame.
Second, one of the hardest lessons learned from the 20th century is that the stability of multiethnic Eastern Europe is contingent upon the protection of the rights of national minorities. The most fundamental of such rights, having long-standing traditions in Central and Eastern Europe, including Ukraine, is the opportunity to be educated in the mother tongue.
This, of course, does not mean that national minorities in Ukraine, for example, are refusing to learn or speak the official state language. There is a mutual understanding that every citizen, regardless of their mother tongue, must properly speak Ukrainian. However, the new Ukrainian legislation, instead of improving the quality of teaching Ukrainian for ethnic minorities, poses a serious threat to the very existence of national minorities in Ukraine.
Third, Hungary has a special bond to ethnic Hungarians living beyond its borders — just like other countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The well-being of these communities, including ethnic Hungarians in Subcarpathia, has always been important for Hungary. This is, in fact, not only the priority of the current government but also an obligation under its Fundamental Law dating back to the country’s independence.
Since taking away the most fundamental language rights of the community is a clear violation of this principle, Hungary’s reaction was quite foreseeable. All actors in the region were aware of this sensitivity, Ukraine knew that its move would strike a nerve in Budapest.
Here we come back to Russia, which is a key player of the dispute....
Any movement even distantly affiliated with Russia must be identified and denounced. Venezuela is a prime example of the dangers of silence in identifying the dangers.
The entire language focus in this Washington Times article is exactly from the Russian playbook.
According to Vladimir Putin, Russia is the only aggrieved country in the world and this dialogue is supposed to be proof of the leadership that really cares about the people and their country when in fact Putin seeks control over land and people for his own purposes. Freedom and healthy economics is the last on the list of these leaders. The current wars Putin is engaging in with his economic alliance is proof there is no free choice or peace on his agenda. Putin wants to build strength by conquering people and pressing them to obey with nationalism as his banner and language as his tool.
