Category Archives: Conflict – Culture – Language – Psychology

A Note on Hersh, Nordstream II, and the Value of Integrity and Truth in an Authentic Democracy

10 Friday Feb 2023

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Extreme Brown vs Red-Green, Political Psychology

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

https://twitter.com/JS_Oppenheim/status/1624050397512867840?s=20&t=EIfNz1h0gZAWRWboFIx6WQ

Integrity is derived from the Latin word “integer,” meaning whole. A person of integrity is complete, undivided. Sincerity, decency, trustworthy are synonyms of integrity. It’s on our shield because it is the quality that makes possible all the good that we do. Because everything we do requires that we be believed, whether that’s promising a source that we will protect her, telling a jury what we saw or heard, or telling a congressional oversight committee or the American people what we are doing with our power and our authorities. We must be believed.

Without integrity, all is lost.

Comey, James B. “Fidelity, Bravery, and Integrity: The Essence of the FBI.” Speech. Installation of Director James B. Comey, FBI Headquarters, October 28, 2013.
Confidence in modern governance and its ability to sustain its political coherence, cohesion, and power, within and without, may be rooted in the credibility, integrity, and trustworthiness of the same.

For cause, I believe the Federal government of the United States of America better than supposed by a constituency often less educated, sophisticated, and specialized–or broadly elevated–for understanding its departments, duties, missions, and relationships. Few Americans have privilege and time, much less specific ambition and curiosity, for personally exploring the administrative machinery of the nation in the advancement and defense of the same.

NordStream II

What if Seymour Hersh’s report and analyses prove true?

The truth won’t change the barbaric, criminal, and untrustworthy character of Putin’s regime.

The truth won’t weaken the strength of America’s defenses nor the argument for inclusive, liberal, open democracies and related rule of law as the much better alternative to the ways of capricious tyrants and totalitarian systems.

The truth may force Germany and the German People to revisit the sordid and twisted political discourse of the 1930s and 1940s just to check the conclusions–and then measure the strides made by modern Germany against the feudal and primitive forces and ideas of a deeply defeated generation followed by an as astonishingly renewed and powerful German state.

The truth may be a fait accomplis, and here we are.

RusNazis

“Kill the Jews, Save Russia!” might have a history dating back to the Byzantine Era in which the tribes of Europe acknowledged and adapted to four comparatively new religions: Greek Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Roman Catholic Christianity. The Varangian descendants of the Vikings and later Rus were to displace the Turkic tribes that had at least nominally adopted Judaism and made their protectorate in eastern and southern Ukraine known as the “Khazar Kingdom of the Jews”. In more recent centuries, the Jewish People may thank Russia for the revival of the “The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion”; for having created the White Russian (loyalist to the czar) Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter who informed Hitler about the Jews before catching the bullet meant for him at the Munich Beer Hall Putsch; for supporting the Palestinian Liberation Organization (PLO) among others to effectively block the spread of western liberalism in the middle east, create and keep the Palestinians corrupted, enslaved, and plundered; for supporting Radical Islam, including Hamas in Gaza but also the Taliban and others as it has suited assorted dictatorships, mafia, and murderous zealots; and now, most cogent and near, for incubating the latest in anti-Semitic white supremacist organizations, Russian Imperial Movement and Wagner Group.

Timing is Everything

Whatever the truth may be, it’s too late with Russia in Ukraine–and positioned elsewhere for assault or heightened threat–for either the invention of or leveraging of a supposed casus belli. It has already in its surreal and psychopathic fashion picked its fight with NATO. However, Tsar #PutinFullTonto may be as ill in body as he appears to be sick in the head, and how far his madness takes his whole circle remains unknown.

Related Online

ADL. “A Hoax of Hate: The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion.” May 1, 2013.

Bauer, Scott. “Trump campaign staff pushed 2020 election lies in newly released audio.” PBS New Hour, February 3, 2023.

Davis, Miriah. “Russian President Vladimir Putin reportedly required doctors after becoming ‘weak and tired’.” Sky News, February 6, 2023.

Jewish News Syndicate. “Hamas leaders in Moscow: We are entitled ‘to resist by every means’: The delegation emphasized their support for the Kremlin on several issues, while Russian officials expressed support for Hamas.” September 21, 2022.

Kessler, Glenn, Salvador Rizzo, Meg Kelly. “Trump’s false or misleading claims total 30,573 over 4 years.” The Washington Post, January 24, 2021.

Morgan, Wesley. “Pentagon looks to restart top-secret programs in Ukraine.” The Washington Post, February 10, 2023.

Oppenheim, James S. “FTAC: Endemic Russian Anti-Semitism–A Note.” BackChannels, February 1, 2021.

Oppenheim, James S. “FTAC: Middle East Conflict: Back to Max Erwin von Scheubner-Richter and Forward to the Plundering of Palestinian Misery by Palestinian Leadership Elites.” BackChannels, December 29, 2017.

Oppenheim, James S. “FTAC: Palestinian KGB & The Palestinians –Abused and Plundered by Their Own.” BackChannels, July 26, 2021.

Wikipedia. “Rebellion: The Litvinenko Case”. The film also goes by the name “Poisoned by Polonium” and, as shown above, “The Murder of Litvinenko”.

Wikipedia. “Russian Imperial Movement”.

Wikipedia. “Steele dossier”.

Wikipedia. “Veracity of statements by Donald Trump”.

–33–

Nord Stream 2: Biden’s Warning, Putin’s Timing, and Germany’s Separation from Russia

10 Friday Feb 2023

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Europe, North America, Northern Europe, Political Psychology, Russia, Ukraine, United States of America

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , ,

Posted by C-SPAN to YouTube, February 7, 2022.

The simpletons, including those in the Kremlin, will scream casus belli over the alleged September sapping of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline laid out by Pulitzer Prize-winning Seymour Hersh in his Substack blog, but the big picture will not have changed: on February 24, Russia invaded a peaceful and sovereign Ukraine taking its business westward away from Moscow’s criminal corrupt and plundering character, and it did not take long for the invader to overtly frame NATO as its admitted true target. With the what-ifs of national security floating ahead of an ever-unfolding present, the Biden Administration appears to have at least developed a plan to secure the functional and political coherence, cohesion, and defense of NATO.

Even if the cat’s out of the bag, so to speak, #PutinFullTonto continues to live in the past while fully believing he’s fighting a medieval war involving primarily feudal force and will: “President Vladimir Putin has accused ‘Anglo-Saxon’ powers of blowing up the pipelines, a Kremlin-designed project to circumvent Ukraine in exporting its gas under the Baltic Sea directly to western Europe.”

With a secret kept secret–or a fabrication not too flagrantly distributed–the White House could have pointed to Russia’s extraordinary lies all the way back to at least the false-flag Moscow Apartment Bombings that well appear to have brought Vladimir Putin to power and paved way for his army’s brutality in Chechnya. Now the Federal establishment will have to defend its denial of Seymour Hersh’s allegation and analyses. Given Hersh’s persnickety and thorough attention to details and references, the Government will lose.

Biden’s Administration, however, will remain well in the right in relation to post-Soviet Russia as a criminal and implacable force that has repeatedly bloodied the world’s stage with its support for barbarism, corruption, terrorism, and transnational crime. Moscow appears to have taken on the role of Evil in a religious play it believes must seek an ambivalent balance between the Devil and God. Well . . . that’s bunk, but it’s also signal of Putin’s own medieval and malign narcissistic (messianic, delusional, grandiose) mentality.

Support may be found for each claim I have made regarding Putin’s Russia, but those who follow know, or all those simply curious, independent, and possessed of integrity in their own OSINT (or better) adventures, will find in every examination of Putin’s tenure in power a damned regime, and one still godless and smarmy even before God, an ignominious little show put on by ruthless small and violent men.

Regarding Putin’s inverted worldview, Germany, and “RusNazis”, having Nord Stream 2 offline and Germany all in with NATO fairly halts the further development of Putin’s backward-moving and upside-down ambitions in Ukraine and the rest of Europe. He has done his damage to British and European spirit, and when he’s gone–and he will be gone, one way or another–greater western and liberal repair will ensue.

Related Online

Faulconbridge, Guy and Vladimir Soldatkin. “Kremlin says those behind Nord Stream blasts must be punished.” Reuters, February 9, 2023.

Hersh, Seymour. “How America Took Out The Nord Stream Pipeline.” Seymour Hersh, Substack, February 8, 2023.

Jackson, Jon. “Putin Preparing Russians for War With NATO.” Newsweek, May 1, 2022.

Oppenheim, James S. “Detecting Post-Soviet Russia’s Black Narrative of Revenge for ’89 and ’91.” BackChannels, July 19, 2022.

Oppenheim, James S. “KGB FSB ROC M-O-N-E-Y.” BackChannels, January 18, 2023.

Politkovskaya, Anna. A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya. Alexander Burry and Tatiana Tulchinsky, Translators. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2003.

Satter, David. “The Unsolved Mystery Behind the Act of Terror That Brought Putin to Power.” National Review, August 17, 2016.

Schindler, John. “Exploring Al Qaeda’s Murky Connection to Russian Intelligence.” Business Insider, June 10, 2014.

–33–

Over Coffee–Opinion, Reading, and Viewing Recommended: Russian Payoffs to European Politicians; Chinese Balloon; Ilhan Omar

05 Sunday Feb 2023

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Europe, Great Britain and United Kingdom, International Development, North America, Political Psychology, Political Spychology, Politics, Russia, Ukraine

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

Russia Paid Off European Politicians In Relation to Ukraine and Violence Elsewhere

Since Russia launched its brutal invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, condemnation of Vladimir Putin’s overseas aggression has reached a fever pitch. Yet Russia can still rely on the occasional friendly voice in Europe: Last November, for example, far-right Italian local legislator Stefano Valdegamberi penned an op-ed decrying the EU’s decision to designate Russia a terrorist state as “a serious mistake” that “foments conflict by denying historical truth.”

But what Valdegamberi didn’t mention was that he had long been collaborating with a secretive Russian lobbying group with a direct link to the Kremlin. Since at least 2014, that group had designed plans to channel cash to European politicians to help it legitimize Russia’s occupation of Crimea and promote pro-Moscow policies inside EU countries.

Laine, Martin, Cecilia Anesi, Lorenzo Bagnoli, and Tatiana Tkachenko. “Kremlin-Linked Group Arranged Payments to European Politicians to Support Russia’s Annexation of Crimea.” Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, February 3, 2023.

Reading Highly Recommended–>

Greg Olear’s 2018 investigation of how the world works between Donald J. Trump, Russia’s political interests, and related mafia and ill-gotten wealth.

America Has Lost Its Objectivity Over “Spy Balloon”, Says Chinese Pundit–And He’s Right

Influential commentator Hu Xijin blamed American “politicization” and “hype” for preventing the incident from escalating, saying that competition to look tough on China meant that the United States “has already lost its objectivity.”

Shepherd, Christian. “China blames U.S. politics for ‘overreaction’to suspected spy balloon.” The Washington Post, February 5, 2023.

In the normal course attending diplomatic incidents, investigations ensue, and with “spy data” presumed already transmitted, there would seem not much point in destroying the technology involved in the overflight. Of course, there was Gary Powers too, so Biden did what ranting Republicans appeared to expect in the way of “tough” leadership. It was not a good decision nor display of national air and space defense–the object should have been addressed and turned or interdicted on or just past arrival in American air space.

China has already apologized for the incident–“On Friday, China’s Foreign Ministry confirmed that the balloon was theirs, but called it a “civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological purposes,” that had gone off course. And the ministry expressed rare “regret” for the incident.” Beijing should now follow up with details regarding the research mission and its technology, in general, while the U.S. Navy attempts retrieval of the drowned payload.

The Silencing by Removal of Ilhan Omar From the Foreign Affairs Committee

The angry header displayed this morning in The Jerusalem Post: “Decision to remove Ilhan Omar from Foreign Affairs Committee was overdue -editorial: What makes Omar particularly dangerous is that while she spews blatant antisemitism, she pretends not to be an antisemite.”

Omar herself had asked (same article), “‘Why is it OK for me to talk about the influence of the (National Rifle Association), or fossil fuel industries or Big Pharma, and not talk about a powerful lobbying group that is influencing policy?'”

Conservative and liberal Americans have now to ask this question: what else is off the table?

Who hasn’t an ox?

Our American system relies on compassion, education, intelligence, open discourse, earnest problem-solving abilities, and respect, not religious or tribal hate.

Apparently, some Jews–not this one although I have become with experience very much an American of Jewish descent–believe Ilhan Omar’s election and voice should be nullified where it most counts, and suspicion, for that is what is expressed by, “. . . pretends not to be an antisemite”, put in place of of argument, education, and reason. The only lesson imparted: don’t mess with the Jews, even if and when they are wrong.

Posted by PBS to YouTube, February 2, 2023.

–33–

Nicolas Tenzer On A Russia That Must Be Condemned, Defeated, Taken Apart, and Taken Down

21 Saturday Jan 2023

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Russia, Ukraine

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

This one analysis by French international affairs and security analyst Nicolas Tenzer sets a certain, different, high, and independent standard for diplomatic community and lay readers alike.

The reality is that Moscow is not in a position to seek a balance with the democratic world. It does not set itself limits that could prefigure any compromise, even one that is not very acceptable to us, and the search for a give-and-take on the basis of which a more or less lasting peace could be envisaged. An allegedly “prudent” approach to Russia would be the worst form of imprudence—the history of the last twenty-three years bears witness to this—and any prospect of negotiations a fool’s game. To continue to hold such a discourse about the end of the war in Ukraine is a serious mistake, because it is part of the Russian hope of reaching a compromise, even if it is less than its initial ambitions. To make such remarks would be to do exactly what Moscow is looking for: to present itself as a supposed partner with whom it is possible to reach an agreement, to believe in its signature—which is constantly flouted—and to suggest that the Russian regime is not an absolute enemy. This would again trivialize its crimes. To pretend to give any credence to Russia’s supposed interests as expressed by the regime would be to question the fundamental principles enshrined in the international treaties drawn up in the aftermath of the Second World War. There is certainly no possibility of stability with a power that seeks instability through destruction.

Tenzer, Nicolas. “Understanding the War: On the Exceptionality of Russia’s All-Out War Against Ukraine.” Tenzer Strategics, January 21, 2023.

Russia and its culture and language are in no danger as regards their contributions and sustained presence in the world. All that is at stake for Russia is a political criminal–one Vladimir Vladimirovich “Vovo” Putin, in fact, a murderer of ordinary Russians–his associates and cronies and as yet unknown criminals in the transnational crime trades.

–33–

KGB FSB ROC M-O-N-E-Y

18 Wednesday Jan 2023

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Russia

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

, , , , , , , , ,

After the fall of the Soviet Union, the church received official privileges including the right to import duty-free alcohol and tobacco. In 1995, the Nikolo-Ugreshky Monastery, which is directly subordinated to the patriarchate, earned $350 million from the sale of alcohol. The patriarchate’s department of foreign church relations, which Kirill ran, earned $75 million from the sale of tobacco. But the patriarchate reported an annual budget in 1995-1996 of only $2 million. Kirill’s personal wealth was estimated by the Moscow News in 2006 to be $4 billion.

During this period, the church has been silent about genuine moral issues, such as Russia’s pervasive corruption and the indiscriminate killing of noncombatants in Chechnya. As Kirill begins his reign as patriarch, there is little reason to expect this to change.

Satter, David. “Putin Runs The Russian State–And the Russian Church Too.” Forbes, February 20, 2009.

In the Feudal-Medieval Mode, there is no potion as toxic as that which couples belief and piety in the common spirit with financial, martial, and political power in an aristocracy of thugs: only in still medieval Russia has Kleptocracy an Emperor and a most loyal (and enriched) Patriarch, both formerly KGB and therefore today criminal FSB.

As has become too much my habit, reference follows, and while I read all that I cite–and have read or perused all that I have cited, and this for age or martinis–little stays with me but principles. For Putin-Kirill as an Infernal Dyad, the two appear to share the deepest relationship in corruption, crime, fascism, malign narcissistic covering, persecution of minorities, especially the LGBTQ set, profit from “sin taxes” on alcohol and tobacco, and God (whose existence each seems to be disproving), only knows what else fills their pockets out of the shadows in which the two actors more authentically reside.

Related Online

AFP. “‘God Put You in Power’: Russian Orthodox Leader Tells Putin on 70th Birthday.” The Moscow Times, October 7, 2022.

Chawrylo, Katarzyna. “The scandal over the Patriarch Kirill.” Center for Eastern Studies, April 4, 2012.

Cohen, Nick. “An evil collusion between a tyrant and a man of God.” The Guardian, August 18, 2012.

Coyer, Paul. “(Un)Holy Alliance: Vladimir Putin, The Russian Orthodox Church And Russian Exceptionalism.” Forbes, May 21, 2015.

Donovan, Jeffrey. “Metropolitan Kirill Elected New Patriarch of Russian Orthodox Church.” RFE/RL, January 27, 2009.

Giovanni, Janine di. “The Real Reason the Russian Orthodox Church’s Leader Supports Putin’s War: Homophobia is at the heart of Patriarch Kirill’s endorsement.” Foreign Policy, April 26, 2022.

Gedeon, Joseph and Nahal Toosi. “The pro-Putin preacher the U.S. won’t touch.” Politico, June 22, 2022.

Gordon, Michael R. “Russian Priests Accuse a Bishop, Plunging the Church Into Turmoil.” The New York Times, July 18, 1999.

Addendum to Reference

Schrader, Adam. “Russian Patriarch Kirill blasts Ukraine for ordering church to leave Kyiv monastery.” UPI, March 12, 2023.

Horowitz, Jason. “The Russian Orthodox Leader at the Core of Putin’s Ambitions.” The New York Times, May 22, 2022.

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine unfolded, Patriarch Kirill I, the leader of the Moscow-based Russian Orthodox Church, had an awkward Zoom meeting with Pope Francis.

The two religious leaders had previously worked together to bridge a 1,000-year-old schism between the Christian churches of the East and West. But the meeting, in March, found them on opposing sides of a chasm. Kirill spent 20 minutes reading prepared remarks, echoing the arguments of President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia that the war in Ukraine was necessary to purge Nazis and oppose NATO expansion.

Lord Dreadnought. “Russian Orthodox Church’s KGB patriarch got rich dabbling in tobacco, oil, and alcohol following ‘perestroika’.” Fitzpatrick Informer, December 30, 2020.

Luchenko, Ksenia. “Can the Ukrainian Orthodox Church Survive the War With Russia?” Carnegie Politika, January 17, 2023.

Satter, David. “Putin Runs The Russian State–And the Russian Church Too.” Forbes, February 20, 2009.

Satter, David. “Russia’s State Church.” Foreign Policy Research Institute, June 27, 2012.

Wikipedia. “Patriarch Kirill of Moscow”.

Wikipedia. “Russian Orthodox Church”.

Posted to YouTube April 16, 2022.

“…the Faculty of Special Propaganda . . . .”

In which Putin has “turned priests into Kremlin agents”–>

Posted to YouTube April 12, 2022.

–33–

FNS: Morning Lies

13 Friday Jan 2023

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, BCND - BackChannels News Day, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Fast News Share

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, ,

FNS=Fast News Share and Quick Comments.

*

Russia said the capture of Soledar was “important for the continuation of successful offensive operations in the Donetsk region.” It added that “establishing control over Soledar makes it possible to cut off the supply routes for Ukrainian troops in Bakhmut.”

The significance of Soledar in military terms is minimal. However, its capture would allow Russian forces, and especially the Wagner mercenary group, to turn their focus on nearby Bakhmut, which has been a target since the summer.

https://www.cnn.com/europe/live-news/russia-ukraine-war-news-1-13-23/index.html

Soledar represents at best a Pyrrhic victory for Wagner as any concentration of force and development of feeding lines is certain to be met with an aggressive Ukrainian military response.

*

Dudley, 35, was reported missing last year by authorities in Lansing, Michigan. A spokesman for his family said Dudley had traveled to Europe to backpack, had gone to Poland for a music festival and at some point crossed into Kaliningrad and was detained in April, 2022.

https://www.militarytimes.com/veterans/2023/01/12/russia-releases-us-navy-veteran-who-crossed-border/?utm_campaign=dfn-ebb&utm_medium=email&utm_source=sailthru&SToverlay=2002c2d9-c344-4bbb-8610-e5794efcfa7d

Backpacker Taylor Dudley’s compass and map skills may have been rusty at the time, imho. In any case, no ballyhoo, no need for a swap, just nine months of diplomacy by a veteran in such negotiations, Bill Richardson, former governor (D) of New Mexico. Richardson had a counterpart in Ara Abramyan, a counterpart in negotiating prisoners associated with Russia out of foreign prisons.

Portent?

Possibly, Russia will try begging American patience over the war in Ukraine, and so friendly and quiet a return–never mind the nine months Dudley spent detained–may lend its little bit of color to the larger and more nefarious picture of #PutinFullTonto and a Moscow fully berserk in Ukraine and elsewhere and beyond the pale of humanity.

*

President Biden, facing a special counsel investigation amid new revelations of classified documents in his possession after the vice presidency, suddenly confronts a ballooning political problem that threatens to hamstring his agenda and blunt the momentum he hoped to seize at the halfway mark of his term.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2023/01/12/biden-trump-classified-documents-politics/

Really?

On January 24, 2020, the Foreign Agents Registration Act unit of the National Security Division of the Department of Justice received from Christopher M. Kise, now the lawyer representing Donald John Trump in his defense in relation to the FBI’s investigation of Trump’s holding documents stamped as Top Secret/Secure Compartmented Information (TS/SCI), FARA registration #6787. In the form, Kise had listed as his principle Reinaldo Munoz Pedroza, the Attorney General of Venezuela appointed by the dictator Nicolas Maduro. At that time, Pedrozo had been sanctioned by the U.S. Department of the Treasury for undermining democracy in Venezuela and related election interference.

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2022/09/19/trump-lawyer-christopher-m-kise-registered-foreign-agent/

Has–or had–President Biden a Registered Foreign Agent potentially (and directly) selling out American Democracy via the Maduro-Putin relationship?

One doubts it.

Only Trump has demanded personal fealty over loyalty to the Constitution from powerful Federal subordinates, e.g., and from the git-go, https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/i-expect-loyalty-trump-told-comey-according-to-written-testimony/2017/06/07/46413298-4bab-11e7-a186-60c031eab644_story.html .

*

Soledar?

Wagner mercenaries have at most captured a salt mine and may now position themselves for greater wholesale slaughter.

Dudley?

It’s good to have him back in the U.S.A.

Biden’s TSI/SC?

Biden’s President, current, sworn to uphold the Constitution and refreshingly authentic about it. The “oops” in a locked garage? Investigation will have to resolve how that classified data got left there and–always the most important question–why.

–33–

FTAC–A Note: Iron River, Narcotics, and the Ecology of Latin American Mass Migration

11 Wednesday Jan 2023

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Canada, Caribbean Basin, Central America, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, North America, United States of America

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , ,

This post continues my practice of trying to make accessible and somewhat permanent useful observation composed in passing elsewhere online or in correspondence. In short Twitterese, I’ve diagrammed the argument as, approximately (NA=North America; LA=Latin America), “NA cash->LA narcotics->NA; NA arms->LA cartel & gang violence->migrants->NA.” Close enough. “NA”=”North America”, of course, and “LA”=”Latin America”.

Here follows an online comment already made plus short associated and supporting reference.

Our narcotics habits and black market enthusiasms fuel the cartels and gangs of Latin America, and those are not known for healthy governing practices. The abused, impoverished, terrified, and threatened migrate to El Norte where they believe there will be at least better security, order, and rule-of-law.

We Americans (and Canadians) are not only a powerful market for everything that may be obtained only through smuggling, we’ve had a business going in running arms into Latin America (along with all the outlaws of the world). Term for exploration on the web: “America, arms, iron river”. I have collected articles on the subject dating back to 2007.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-mexico-guns/iron-river-of-guns-flows-from-u-s-to-mexico-idUSN1223853620070713 (2007)

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/20/opinion/international-world/guns-mexico.html (2021)

The sad truth about my Fellow Americans is that we’re greedy as sin, –or desperate and both–and we pay a high price for it x addictions x homelessness x social failures x social pathologies. Neither our Far Out Left nor Rabid Reactionary Right seems to have a clue as regards the full ecology of corruption, crime, narcotics, trafficked labor (2nd largest abuse of all), and above all our most prized possession: money–would that our ethics, principles, values, and general American spirit modify the national appetite for good times and loot.

Related Online

Abbany, Zulfikar. “Report: EU spends 31 billion on illicit drugs.” DW, April 5, 2016.

Cheatham, Amelia and Diana Roy. “Central America’s Turbulent Northern Triangle.” Council on Foreign Relations, last updated June 22, 2022.

Gaynor, Tim. “‘Iron river of guns’ flows from U.S. to Mexico.” Reuters, July 13, 2007.

Grillo, Loan. “Slow the Iron River of Guns to Mexico.” The New York Times, February 26, 2021.

Kilmer, Beau. “Americans’ Spending on Illicit Drugs Nears $150 Billion Annually; Appears to Rival What is Spent on Alcohol.” RAND, August 20, 2019.

Krauze, Leon. “Biden must stop the ‘iron river’ of U.S. weapons devastating Mexico.” The Washington Post, March 10, 2021.

Llana, Sara Miller. “US guns fuel Mexico drug war? The politics behind the issue.” The Christian Science Monitor, June 15, 2011.

Mallene, Laura. “Europeans Spend $30 Billion A Year On Drugs.” Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, November 28, 2019.

Martinez, Gabriela. “The flow of guns from the U.S. to Mexico is getting lost in the border debate.” PBS New Hour, June 12, 2019, updated July 2, 2019.

Mathema, Silva. “They Are (Still) Refugees: People Continue to Flee Violence in Latin American Countries.” Center for American Progress, June 1, 2018.

Morris, Nathaniel and Gema Kloppe-Santamaria. “The Many, Varied Violences Behind the Central American Exodus.” IPI Global Observatory, November 15, 2022.

Oppenheim, James S. “An American Report Card.” BackChannels, October 4, 2019.

Pendergast, Curt. “Arizona guns quietly smuggled across border as bullets fly in Mexico.” Tuscon Arizona Daily Star, November 25, 2019, updated June 26, 2020.

Rubio, Yury. “Twenty-first Century Slavery: How to Stop Human Trafficking at the U.S.-Mexico Border.” The International Affairs Review, December 15, 2022.

Seelke, Clare Ribando. “Trafficking in Persons in Latin America and the Caribbean.” PDF. Congressional Research Service, October 13, 2016.

VICE News. “How the US Fuels Mexican Cartel Violence.” Video. YouTube, August 22, 2021.

–33–

Surrealpolitik: Orban & Putin & ‘Illiberal Democracy’

07 Saturday Jan 2023

Posted by in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Extreme Brown vs Red-Green, Hungary, Psychology, Russia

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

BUDAPEST, Hungary—When Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban unleashed a racist tirade during an annual address to ethnic Hungarians in Romania on July 23, in which he argued that his supporters do “not want to become peoples of mixed race,” the international community recoiled in horror at the vitriol being espoused by the leader of a NATO and European Union member state. One of Orban’s longtime advisors, Zsuzsa Hegedus, resigned after the speech, calling it a “pure Nazi text … worthy of [former Nazi leader Joseph] Goebbels.”

Coakley, Amanda. “Putin’s Trojan Horse Inside the European Union: No matter what Moscow does, Hungary’s prime minister consistently carries water for the Kremlin.” Foreign Policy, August 3, 2022.

Amanda Coakley’s article also covers Orban’s deliberate development of dependence on Russia for Hungary’s energy supply. His disingenuous position within the European Union suggests he has had but one outcome in mind, i.e., to become premier in Europe’s “New Nobility” as encouraged by Vladimir Putin. At the base of the autocratic feudal-medieval bond–the same “Malignant Narcissism” that has so characterized former American President Donald Trump’s careers and politics that have turned out disasters for banks, contractors, and citizens.

In late November 2022, Ukrainian special forces arrested a suspected Russian agent at the Ukraine–Hungary border. The man had been attempting to smuggle secret information into EU member state Hungary on a flash drive that he had allegedly concealed in his anus.

The flash drive contained stolen personal information about senior figures and staff at the Ukrainian domestic secret service SBU and the Ukrainian military intelligence service GUR, as well as sensitive data on Ukrainian army bases, weapons and logistics.

Bogar, Zsolt. “Is Hungary becoming Russia’s spy hub within the EU?” DW, September 12, 2022.

Orban, contrary to the European Union’s posture, appears not to mind either the presence nor success of Russia’s spies in Budapest and elsewhere in Hungary. The penetration surpasses presence in numbers as allies believe Hungary’s “IT networks and internal communications” compromised. For a four-year period, 2013-2017, Orbán’s Hungary had even eased the access of Russian spies into the rest of the EU via a “Golden Visa” program (related and recent: Szabolcs, Panyi. “Russian spy chief’s son has a Budapest address–in a property owned by an old friend of Orbán’s chief of staff.” Telex, November 14, 2022).

In the now “surrealpolitik” constructed between Hungary and Russia, business includes the following:

  • Building two nuclear plant blocks in Paks financed by borrowing $10 billion from Russia;
  • Building railroad cars;
  • Hosting Russia’s dark International Investment Bank;
  • Supporting a 15-year gas delivery contract with Gazprom that bypasses Ukraine.

For further details, see the source–Rácz, András. “Authoritarian Ties: The Case of Russia and Hungary.” The Russia File, Kennan Institute, Wilson Center, October 22, 2021. Rácz also notes where Orbán’s spine has stiffened in relation to Russian performance not up to EU standards (and some “intelligence operatives” have indeed been ejected from Hungary).

Global Security‘s remarks fit the brotherly love model of modern despotism in Hungary: “Orban played tough, which might not turn out well for him in the long run. His games were turning into a high wire act, threatening to keep Brussels off balance. At times Orban made half-hearted promises to uphold the EU’s policy toward Russia; at other times, he allowed himself to be flattered by Putin, his self-declared political role model. Or, when it came to economic interests, he allowed himself to be put under pressure (Global Security, “Hungary-Russia Relations” as quoted January 7, 2022).

Putin’s realpolitik, plain old mafia leverage, came through for Russia this past year. From The Guardian—

Hungarians voted in general elections just weeks after the invasion, in April, and it seems reasonable to assume that the war next door had an influence on the result. Given the climate of fear that the devastating “special military operation” created, Hungarians voted to keep Viktor Orbán’s Fidesz in power rather than risk an untested six-party coalition. This assumption also underlies Orbán’s response, which is to stay out of the conflict to the point of being “exempted”, a position that has been condemned as a betrayal by Hungary’s western allies. Hungary refuses to allow arms shipments destined for Kyiv to transit Hungarian territory and blocks the extension of EU sanctions against Russia to the energy sector. This latter stance is intended to enable an already controversial Russian-Hungarian project to build a nuclear power plant on the Danube (Paks II) to go ahead unaltered.

Dalos, György.  “Orban says Hungary is ‘exempt’ from the conflict: tell that to his friend in Moscow.”  The Guardian, October 29, 2022.

György also notes the “similarities between the two leaders: authoritarian posturing and illiberalism underlying their respective concepts of the state.”

Since then, Orbán has been accused of fostering resentment. Tensions flared in 2018 over a video that apparently showed diplomats illegally issuing Hungarian passports to people in Transcarpathia. Later, in 2019, Hungary was accused of trying to influence the outcome of elections in the region, and blocked Ukraine’s NATO membership negotiations over the row. |

Today, from the Donbas to Kosovo, events are again proving the potency of nationalist narratives over lost territory and peoples separated by the claimed injustices of history. Yet, in the context of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the simple fact that many Hungarians have negative views of both Russians and Ukrainians is pertinent.

Nattrass, William. “Hungary’s ‘pro-Russia’ stance was inevitable.” Politico, September 15, 2022.

The wholly reactionary New Nobility (a member of which Orban might wish to be counted) rather like the old, appears fascinated by its own super-duper bloodline and culture, enough so to demonize hosts beyond their own boundaries, engage in passportization, and when possibility arises, redraw maps by way of wars driven by the conviction of racially-based cultural supremacy.

Comparing Orban to Putin might once have been hyperbole. But when Fidesz seems determined to expel a high-quality educational institution from the country on the grounds of political views of its funder, it is hyperbole no longer.

The attack on CEU, furthermore, is not happening in isolation. It is part of a broader effort to squeeze out “Soros and the powers that symbolize him,” to use Orban’s own words.

Rohac, Dalibor. “Hungary Is Turning Into Russia: On the CEU, Orban Mimics Putin.” Foreign Affairs, April 12, 2017.

America’s Anti-Defamation League has classified the demonizing of George Soros as expressive of anti-Semitism, a return to the rhetoric of Jew as Globalist. In fact and far back in the day, George and his father, Tivador, used social camouflage to survive the Holocaust while providing other Jews with forged papers for escape. Their resistance would continue against Stalin and Communist Russia, and so through George Soros it has been sustained through the Cold War and throughout Russia journey into kleptocracy and, on this day, politically absolute tyranny.

ADL. “The Antisemitism Lurking Behind George Soros Conspiracy Theories.” October 11, 2018.

Bogar, Zsolt. “Is Hungary becoming Russia’s spy hub within the EU?” DW, September 12, 2022.

Coakley, Amanda. “Putin’s Trojan Horse Inside the European Union: No matter what Moscow does, Hungary’s prime minister consistently carries water for the Kremlin.” Foreign Policy, August 3, 2022.

Dalos, György.  “Orban says Hungary is ‘exempt’ from the conflict: tell that to his friend in Moscow.”  The Guardian, October 29, 2022.

Global Security. “Hungary-Russia Relations”.

Nattrass, William. “Hungary’s ‘pro-Russia’ stance was inevitable.” Politico, September 15, 2022.

Oppenheim, James S. “FTAC: A Short Note on the Demonizing of George Soros.” BackChannels, August 8, 2020.

Rácz, András. “Authoritarian Ties: The Case of Russia and Hungary.” The Russia File, Kennan Institute, Wilson Center, October 22, 2021.

Rohac, Dalibor. “Hungary Is Turning Into Russia: On the CEU, Orban Mimics Putin.” Foreign Affairs, April 12, 2017.

Szabolcs, Panyi. “Russian spy chief’s son has a Budapest address–in a property owned by an old friend of Orbán’s chief of staff.” Telex, November 14, 2022.

While #PutinFullTonto strives to return Russia to some version of the KGB revisits the Russian Imperial mode, few believe the Phantom of the Soviet will restore a monstrous near past; however, he has well succeeded in leveraging cooperation from malign and piratical personalities similar to his own–in power Viktor Orban and Recep Tayyip Erdogan most notably–and thereby weakening the political cohesion and coherence of the Atlantic Alliance and the European Union.

–33–