Surrealpolitik: Orban & Putin & ‘Illiberal Democracy’

07 Saturday Jan 2023

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

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authoritarianism, autocracy, EU & Hungary, Hungary, Hungary & Russia, Illiberal Democracy is Tyranny, kleptocracy, malignant narcissism, Medieval v. Modern, New Nobility, Orban & Putin, Orban and Putin, political absolutism, Putinism, Russia, Viktor Orban, Vladimir Putin

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–

Afghanistan Welcomes the Taliban

16 Monday Aug 2021

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Afghanistan, Islamic Small Wars

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Afghanistan, authoritarianism, Islamic Revolution, medieval v modern, political absolutism

The Telegraph, August 16, 2021.

Russia, duplicitous and playing beneath the table as well as above it, fairly owns that deck of cards labelled “REALPOLITIK”. It has in its underhanded fashion furnished the Taliban all along with Russian arms and materiel while at the same time mouthing its anti-terrorist stance. Yesterday, while former Afghani President Ghani fled Kabul with, possibly, so much loot that it would not fit in his helicopter, the Taliban was deploying guards to the Russian Embassy.

How sweet this victory for the most archaic, medieval, narcissistic, and selfish of human political minds across cultures.

The Afghan People, the Afghan Military, the United States of America, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) have been not only humiliated by the Taliban’s guerrilla putsch made possible by corruption within the Afghan government — or money would have reached its troops and those troops would have been more appreciated, moved, and better defended when most needed — the same have been looted by Moscow, more or less, and left to do their “lessons learned” back home, which from today may become less safe in relation to the deeply retrograde Islamic Revolution in Afghanistan.

Keys

–Rightful CIA intercession on behalf of the mujaheddin during the Soviet Army’s invasion of Afghanistan (see “Operation Cyclone” for the details).

— While both the CIA and Russian interests appeared to mirror one another in retreat from Afghanistan and leaving the state to its own devices, BackChannels believes Moscow directly influenced Ayman Al-Zawahiri during a 1996-97 detention in Russia and through him the compact with Osama Bin Laden that would produce Al-Qaeda and lead to 9/11 and successive acts of Islamist terror worldwide. Conspiratorial? Delusional? Look again at whose embassy is not only staying put in Kabul but which has Taliban guards keeping it secured.

–Today, “Moscow-Kabul” may be added to “Moscow-Tehran”, another block-and-goad nexus against western culture, democracy, humanism, and liberalism.

For peace, Asian powers as well as EU/NATO have with half-measures navigated what they have believed to be an “East-West Rivalry” sustained on business and political accommodations and tensions, and as much would seem in the natural course of diplomatic and international affairs. However, BackChannels has long noted a much different axis in conflict, and that has been the tension between Feudal-Medieval Personalities and States, the chief representatives of “Political Absolutism”, and the Modern of Mind devoted to universal dignity and freedom in the address of common and global challenges to human well-being and the survival of Earth herself.

Moscow and Company (lately Beijing as well) have been most interested in Power and Wealth benefiting select elites as determined in each respective absolutist and feudal-medieval framework while much of the rest of the world now cries for deliverance from them with hopes for modern improvements in Qualities of Living wherever life has planted them.

The deeply archaic and medieval Taliban were not welcomed yesterday in Kabul nearly as much as dreaded and feared.

Modern universal moral revulsion will now oppose the Taliban’s primitive narcissism, rigidity, and violence, and however disorganized it may be, it will by way of species-wide intellectual evolution emerge naturally and implacably — no less so than what mankind has done to create the culturally interwoven complex machinery that delivers the modern world in materials and services — and yesterday’s “victory” (over millions determined to flee it and now subject to living beneath the lowering shadow of the fear of it) may yet prove but the beginning of the Islamists own end.

Crowds of people desperate to escape Afghanistan stormed Kabul’s international airport, rushing onto the tarmac.

People clung to the sides of military planes, even as one taxied down the runway, in a bid to flee as the Taliban takes control.https://t.co/BMfaEkDykr pic.twitter.com/WkX0JQx3io
— The New York Times (@nytimes) August 16, 2021

Sky News, August 16, 2021.

–33–

FTAC: Medieval v Modern – A Short Passage

09 Monday Nov 2020

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, FTAC - From The Awesome Conversation, Political Psychology

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meaning of sovereignty, medieval v modern, political absolutism

From the Awesome Conversation

I don’t support Fascism on the Left.

https://www.thedailybeast.com/meet-the-trump-officials-making-government-a-family-business

Why support it on the right?

Escape the echo chamber you’ve been in and get a breath of fresh air.
Some additional reading, not necessarily for you but any curious about bridging the worlds of medieval absolute and modern democratic power –>
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-hungary-orban-balaton-procurement-exc/exclusive-hungary-premiers-friends-and-family-win-more-and-more-public-business-idUSKCN1GR213 – 3/15/2018

https://theblacksea.eu/stories/malta-files/erdogan-family-in-secret-offshore-ship-deal/ – 5/26/2017

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/12/us/politics/trump-erdogan-family-turkey.html – 11/12/2019

In the way of some older men growing gray and tired, my patience for writing longer copy — and responding to endless online arguments — may be growing thin, so above I hope I’ve telegraphed a statement about political bullying, the sometimes ironic destruction of freedom by those who most pretend to represent it, and the related plundering of states by their own leaders. The “by any means” Far Out Left has indeed shouted down its favored targets, time and again, and it has carried forward from Russian anti-Semitic traditions its own brand of Jew-hate (reading recommended from other history: Michael Kellogg’s The Russian Roots of Nazism, Cambridge UP, 2009), but Orwellian Left seems to me far from the moderate liberalism known to the best of America’s Democratic and Republican Parties.

Similarly, one cannot overlook the effects of 9/11 (2001 for kiddies) on both the promotion of necessary state security organizations and (less necessary) reactionary nationalists. On that tack, Erdogan, Orban, and Trump suffice for examples of a want of return to a medieval and frequently ugly political absolutism. All who would become dictators cannot wait to get their mitts on a state’s army and treasury — and then have at it with their perceived competitions — while “the people”, Left or Right leaning, may be seduced by dogma and made ready for plundering and damnation, and much to the delight of breathtakingly enriched family and friends.

I will have to find again historian Richard Pipes’ observations on Russia’s struggle with constitutional monarchy and with the concept of sovereignty. For the most part, Russia’s assertion of sovereignty considered property and persons alike in its dominion, and proof would be the right to destroy either at will and with impunity.

Think of that when you reflect, if ever, on Russia’s behavior across the so far long nine years of the Syrian Tragedy.

Europe chose a different direction in its comprehension and — in the end — consideration of others.

–33–

A Note on the Far Right’s Epoch Times

09 Monday Nov 2020

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, 21st Century Modern, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology

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absolute power, America's Medieval Future, America's Modern Future, American Fascism, Far Right Disinformation Campaigns, Loyalty to Power, medieval v modern, political absolutism

For those who have encountered the wild disinformation at times disseminated by The Epoch Times and either swallowed the bait, as with QAnon Conspiracy agitation and propaganda, or confronted and dismissed the same but didn’t fight, here’s a short list of additional reference online –>

https://magazine.atavist.com/stranger-than-fiction-epoch-times-falun-gong-trump-election-2020 – 10/23/2020

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/epoch-times-begins-hiding-its-connection-huge-pro-trump-ad-n1045416 – 8/22/2019

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/epoch-times-coronavirus-bioweapon-1.5548217 – 4/29/2020

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/white-house-reviews-incident-involving-epoch-times-photographer-handing-a-folder-to-trump/2018/09/18/e9d8b8ba-bac5-11e8-bdc0-90f81cc58c5d_story.html – 9/18/2018

https://www.westword.com/news/why-is-far-right-conspiracist-newspaper-epoch-times-being-stocked-at-colorado-capitol-11537390 – 10/29/2019

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/the-epoch-times/ – 11/9/2020

https://www.abc10.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/verify-unsolicited-paper-spreads-outlandish-covid-claims/103-9290495e-a501-44fa-b7df-0bb0e385328b – 5/20/2020

https://lostcoastoutpost.com/2020/jun/27/fake-news-what-epoch-times-and-why-did-it-arrive-m/ – 6/27/????

The Epoch Times opposes the Chinese Communist Party,^[20] and promotes far-right politicians in Europe,^[3][5] and backs President Donald Trump in the U.S.;^[21] a 2019 report by NBC News showed it to be the second-largest funder of pro-Trump Facebook advertising after the Trump campaign.^[22][23][24] The Epoch Media Group’s news sites and YouTube channels have spread conspiracy theories such as QAnon and anti-vaccination propaganda.^[18][25][26] The organization frequently promotes other Falun Gong affiliated groups, such as the performing arts company, Shen Yun.^[14][21]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Epoch_Times

Soviet Era Communist Party power gave up the ghost at noon on December 25, 1991 when the Soviet Union officially acknowledged its dissolving in bankruptcy and Party nomenklatura (elites) turned into jackals tearing away the assets of the former state piece by piece. While the Communist Party persists in Russia, it is no longer a power there. President Vladimir Putin has made himself a “Vertical of Power” surrounded by politically enfeebled but immensely wealthy and otherwise powerful oligarchs, quite a few of which have made the sanctions list of the United States government.

Regarding China’s Communist Party: it has proven helpful in the minting of billionaires.

Posted to YouTube September 29, 2019.

Loyalty to Party | Loyalty to Putin | Loyalty to Trump

The most important loyalty of all: the worship of money.

Where are The Communists?

China’s zeitgeist — from predatory international lending to its passion for totalitarian political, religious, and social control — is troubling for the west, and I will have a post out on that soon. In the meantime, true American conservatives would do well to shift their talk away from communists and globalists and a horde of made-up and talked-up bogeys and move toward engagement with more authentic and challenging domestic and global issues and themes.

China produced nearly four in every 10 new billionaires this year, outpacing the number of new faces in the US and allowing Shanghai to leapfrog Hong Kong for the first time in terms of the number of super-rich, Hurun Report Inc said.

The world’s second-largest economy added 182 of 479 new billionaires, taking the tally in China to 799, according to the latest Hurun Global Rich List 2020. The US minted 59 new ones to raise its total to 626.
SCMP – “China produces 182 new billionaires, triple the new faces in the US, while Shanghai overtakes Hong Kong for the first time: Huron Report” – 2/26/2020

Klett said that during his stint at the Epoch Times, he had a front-row seat to the epistemic crisis triggered by Trump’s ascendancy, one that has made distinguishing truth from political fiction increasingly difficult. “In that first interview, I was being honest when I said I could be neutral. I really believed that was possible,” Klett admitted, hands shoved deep into his pockets as we walked down a Brooklyn street in search of a quieter bar. “By the time I left, just a few days before the election, I realized what everyone is still coming to terms with.”
“What’s that?” I asked.
“That there’s no difference between the news and propaganda. That objectivity is about who has power.”
https://magazine.atavist.com/stranger-than-fiction-epoch-times-falun-gong-trump-election-2020 – 10/23/2020

–33–

Ai Fen, Chinese Authorities, and the Shame of Hiding Shame

01 Wednesday Apr 2020

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, China, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, COVID-19, Epistemology, Facsimile Bipolar Political Sociopathy, Political Psychology, Psychology

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authoritarianism, C19, China in Denial, Chinese Political Elitsm, Communism, COVID-19, Dr. Ai Fen, Leadership and Narcissism, Narcissistic Defense of Power, political absolutism, totalitarianism

While C19 moves around the world, the sudden disappearance of Chinese whistle blower Dr. Ai Fen has been moving across the World Wide Web as well.

Carr, Jemma. “Wuhan doctor who was among the first to alert other medics to the spread of coronavirus ‘goes missing’ amid fears she has been detained for speaking out.” Daily Mail, April 1, 2020.

From the Awesome Conversation

What are China’s authorities hiding or trying to hide?
It’s remarkable watching the hiding of shame (or guilt) play out on the global stage.
There are people who believe — and when they’re leaders, they may be the worst of people — that any show of damage, fear, or sentiment weakens them in relation to public perception when, in fact, it is their own “inner eye” (the way the may be forced to view themselves) that cannot stand being seen as weak. In that may be the soul of “malignant narcissism” and related “civilizational narcissism”.
Such types embarrass and shame themselves, for what seems right to them looks wrong to everyone else.

Dogma may no longer serve to cover or excuse less savory designs.

Our species evolves not only physically but psychologically, and we have reached an age with sufficient global and open communications in which authoritarians, criminals, and dictators may no longer brush aside or suppress essentially truthful criticism and data. The same may not stop “black programs” and conversations “behind the curtains” — that kind of feudal and medieval egotism and power may be always with us — but by and large BackChannels believes the world evolves toward greater complexity, interdependence, and freedom. The global public may still be misled, but not for long provided the journalists have integrity and do their work.

Related on BackChannels

https://conflict-backchannels.com/2020/03/19/note-covid-19-biological-warfare-and-the-odds-and-ambiguities/

https://conflict-backchannels.com/coins-and-other-terms/anthropolitical-psychology/civilizational-narcissism/

https://conflict-backchannels.com/coins-and-other-terms/anthropolitical-psychology/malignant-narcissism/

https://conflict-backchannels.com/coins-and-other-terms/anthropolitical-psychology/paranoid-delusional-narcissistic-reflection-of-motivation/

Perspective: Related Online and With the Truth About COVID-19 in the United States

This first preliminary description of outcomes among patients with COVID-19 in the United States indicates that fatality was highest in persons aged =85, ranging from 10% to 27%, followed by 3% to 11% among persons aged 65–84 years, 1% to 3% among persons aged 55-64 years, <1% among persons aged 20–54 years, and no fatalities among persons aged =19 years.

https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/volumes/69/wr/mm6912e2.htm

Annual Rate of Death for the United States of America

Number of deaths: 2,813,503
Death rate: 863.8 deaths per 100,000 population
Life expectancy: 78.6 years
Infant Mortality rate: 5.79 deaths per 1,000 live births

Number of deaths for leading causes of death:

Heart disease: 647,457
Cancer: 599,108
Accidents (unintentional injuries): 169,936
Chronic lower respiratory diseases: 160,201
Stroke (cerebrovascular diseases): 146,383
Alzheimer’s disease: 121,404
Diabetes: 83,564
Influenza and Pneumonia: 55,672
Nephritis, nephrotic syndrome and nephrosis: 50,633
Intentional self-harm (suicide): 47,173

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm

Between the people of the United States and the nation’s most prominent authority on infectious disease and pandemic, the Centers of Disease Control, hide nothing, sugarcoat nothing but report accurately, plainly, clearly, empirically, completely–and that may be the best cure this editor might know for panic and state-driven perceptual control of “the masses”.

In America, at least, democracy has just become more directly responsive and responsible to the People.

–33–

All Shook Up! A Comment on President Trump’s Foreign Policy and Not So ‘Musical Chairs’ with Washington’s Most Senior Executives in Intelligence and Security

11 Wednesday Sep 2019

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, United States of America

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intelligence and security, medieval v modern, political absolutism, populism, Trump Administration, United States

Top: https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2015/sep/13/iran-responsible-for-deaths-of-500-us-service-memb/ Bottom: https://www.wsj.com/articles/boltons-departure-removes-a-brake-on-trumps-foreign-policy-11568149789

To the Side, A Comment on Iran’s Presence in Iraq

After so many years of American investment in trying to build a stable Iraq, the United States has effectively enabled an Iranian takeover of the country. I know, because I was there and saw it with my own eyes. That the Obama administration is not opposing the rising influence of Iran, as the White House prepares a historic deal to leave Iran with nuclear weapons just beyond its fingertips, is especially alarming, and a recipe for increasing regional conflict.

Pregent, Michael. “I Saw the U.S. Hand Iraq Over to the Iranians. Is the Whole Region Next?” The Tower, February 2015.

Across the country, Iranian-sponsored militias are hard at work establishing a corridor to move men and guns to proxy forces in Syria and Lebanon. And in the halls of power in Baghdad, even the most senior Iraqi cabinet officials have been blessed, or bounced out, by Iran’s leadership.

Arango, Tim. “Iran Dominates in Iraq After U.S. ‘Handed the Country Over'”. The New York Times, July 15, 2017.

An Aside More Front and Center as Regards President Trump’s Now Many “Shake-Ups”

On this day, perhaps especially this one day of the year, September 11, the outside-looking-in assessment of America’s place in the world and its strength becomes of singular interest in light of “East” (Authoritarian-Kleptocratic) v “West” (Democratic and Lawful) rivalry. The departure yesterday of National Security Advisor John Bolton may highlight that issue by leaving in the White House a President surrounded (ah, but perhaps not) by more pliant personalities. Today, the President has in Bolton’s stead yesterday’s “United States Deputy National Security Advisor” who has overnight become the “Acting National Security Advisor” in the figure of Charles Kupperman, a Bolton protege.

Will the political realities — international states of affairs — surrounding President Trump have changed with the exchange of experienced officials?

Probably not.

What may have changed is the gateway given the will of the President to act on his own instincts — coupled with his imagination — less tempered by either the discipline, experience, knowledge, or respect associated with yet another of the nation’s established senior intelligence and security community officials.

Last month —

One of America’s most seasoned intelligence officials is leaving the building. Sue Gordon, who spent more than 25 years in the CIA before becoming second-in-command at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), was confirmed to be departing on Thursday by President Trump.

Gordon was next in line to serve as acting director after current director Dan Coats announced his resignation effective Aug. 15.

Woodruff, Betsy. “Deputy Intel Chief Sue Gordon Is Out After Trump Snub.” Daily Beast, August 8, 2019.

Dan Coats, Sue Gordon, John Bolton — who else experienced in standing behind Presidents (in defense of the Constitution of the United States — see “Basic Training” on this blog) is missing from today’s action and diplomacy with Moscow and Tehran as America’s President appears to prefer standing on his own (elected but less experienced) authority?

BackChannels may here thank God for its not having to reinvent any wheels. By title, publication, and date —

“List of Trump Administration dismissals and resignations”. Wikipedia.

“Who has left Trump’s administration and orbit?” CNN Politics, September 10, 2019.

“The Turnover at the Top of the Trump Administration.” The New York Times, Updated September 10, 2019.

While perusing the above three web pages, BackChannels came across this gem of a Wikipedia entry: “Presidential Advisory Commission on Election Integrity“. The Presidential Commission charged with investigating voter fraud, i.e., Trump’s claims that millions of illegal immigrants had voted in the 2016 election, opened shop on May 11, 2017 and closed without results on January 3, 2018. The following quotation represents the results of a separate study as relayed by Wikipedia:

In an analysis by the Brennan Center for Justice at the New York University School of Law looked at 42 jurisdictions, focusing on ones with large population of noncitizens. Of 23.5 million votes surveyed, election officials referred an estimated 30 incidents of suspected noncitizen voting for further investigation, or about 0.0001% of votes cast. Douglas Keith, the counsel in the Brennan Center’s Democracy Program and co-author of the analysis, said, “President Trump has said repeatedly that millions of people voted illegally in 2016, but our interviews with local election administrators made clear that rampant noncitizen voting simply did not occur. Any claims to the contrary make their job harder and distract from progress toward needed improvements like automatic voter registration.”

We will always remember the lives we lost on this tragic and horrific day. Triumphantly, our nation came together and showed the world the strength of America. #NeverForget pic.twitter.com/usHqbjpzEZ

— Bennie G. Thompson (@BennieGThompson) September 11, 2019

America could not and would not — would never — capitulate to Al Qaeda on September 11, 2001, nor would it “work with” their cousins in “Islamist” associated crime and mass murder worldwide. Not eighteen years ago; not today; never.

However, here is a different question: would the United States today bend itself toward authoritarian and totalitarian regimes?

China?

Iran?

North Korea?

Russia?

Given one singular elected head of state or another, would the United States embark on the discouragement or encouragement of authoritarianism, confusion, corruption, kleptocracy, and related totalitarian political control from within?

With an authoritarian, nationalist, and populist President in the White House and one moving the bodies and minds in, out, and all around (so we do the national “Hokey Pokey”), that question should become (after this Day of Remembrance) of greater general and public national interest.

–33–

Bothersomes

28 Sunday Jul 2019

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, Also in Media, American Domestic Affairs, Syria, United States of America

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political absolutism, Political Allowance, political power, Rule by the Immune, Rule of the Rich, Rule of the Vicious

Rule of the Ruthless — And We Did Next to Nothing

AFP, July 26, 2019.

“Assad v The Terrorists” – A KGB Theater Presentation

Barrel Bombs, Chemical Weapons, “Red Lines” — The United States chose to sponsor pro-democracy forces against the Assad regime while repeatedly failing to apply force itself to ending the atrocities and injustices meted by that regime through the long course of now eight years of continuous destruction, depopulation, and horror.

Last week, Canada’s National Post published “Terry Glavin: Russia and Assad are butchering Syrian civilians again. No one seems to mind” (July 24, 2019) — and no one seemed to mind.

Perhaps the west has become inured to mindless sadism after experiencing so many images and so much footage recording Assad the Tyrant’s infinite obscenities. Either way, and whatever our reasoning or weaknesses otherwise, it appears evil has prevailed in Syria.

Talmud 7:16 as Quoted by Rishon Rishon in 2004
Qohelet Raba, 7:16
אכזרי סוף שנעשה אכזרי במקום רחמן

Kol mi shena`asa rahaman bimqom akhzari Sof shena`asa akhzari bimqom rahaman

All who are made to be compassionate in the place of the cruel In the end are made to be cruel in the place of the compassionate.

More colloquially translated: “Those who are kind to the cruel, in the end will be cruel to the kind.”

Online Source: http://www.rishon-rishon.com/archives/044412.php

Rule by the Rich — Trump’s Tax Cut Legislation Largest Contributor to $4.1 Trillion Added to the National Debt

The biggest contributor to the $4.1 trillion that will be added to the national debt through 2029 is the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act. This signature tax cut legislation signed by Trump in 2017 single-handedly increased the debt by $1.8 trillion, according to CRFB.
Marcellus, Sibile. “Trump adds $4.1 trillion to national debt. Here’s where the money went.” Yahoo Finance, July 26, 2019.

Is our governance — the governance of the United States of America — modern?

Is it representative, responsive, responsible?

Rule by the Vicious — Trump’s Remarks Sting West Baltimore

Screenshot – https://twitter.com/JS_Oppenheim – July 27, 2019

President Trump applied to “West Baltimore” one of his favorite words for those places not up to his standards (and perhaps not likely to be helped by him either): “infestation”. He applies it in proximity to people — or how he imagines people — he doesn’t particularly like as well. In this instance, he called Rep. Elijah Cummings, Democratic head of the House Oversight Committee, a “brutal bully” — and in the words of The Wall Street Journal — “for criticizing conditions at the Southern border and declared his district—which includes a large part of Baltimore—as a “disgusting, rat and rodent infested mess” (https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-portrays-baltimore-district-of-democratic-rep-cummings-as-rodent-infested-mess-11564248241 – July 27, 2019).

Fairly, a personal source suggested that Baltimore has become the heroin capital of America, but still the President’s vitriol was neither matched nor softened by any offer of greater Federal assistance or support in the addressing of the problems besetting Rep. Cummings’ district.

Baltimore fought back.

Off the headlines —

Dubbed the “heroin capital” by the Drug Enforcement Agency, there are estimates that put the rate of drug addicts in the city as high as 1 in 10 residents. Baltimore is now designated a High-Intensity Drug Trafficking Area by the federal government so that local police receive more funding to try to combat the issue.
http://raylozano.com/top-5-cities-biggest-heroin-problems/

Despite the better and more practical relationship between “West Baltimore” and the Federal government, the impression made by the President’s belittling and contemptuous mouth for all who are not his nor his adoring base would seem to be paving the way for the ascent of the vicious (and surreal) in American politics.

CNN, Victor Blackwell, July 27, 2019.

Rule by the Immune?

Rep. Ken Buck (R) Colorado: Could you charge the President with a crime after he left office?
Robert Mueller: Yes.
Buck: You believe he committed . . . you could charge the President of the United States with obstruction of justice after he left office?
Mueller: Yes.

Who says the President has to leave office (ever)?

The true test for Americans would seem to be that of appreciating the Constitution and supporting its intents and its work in the creation and sustaining of the nation’s so far authentic and fully working democracy. Bullies, demagogues, malignant narcissists were not meant to last long in power in this nation, but where such do or may, one might suggest that the constituents themselves allowed that to happen.

–33–

Mafia “Don”? Laundering the Authoritarian President’s Image

07 Friday Sep 2018

Posted by commart in 21st Century Feudal, American Domestic Affairs, Conflict - Culture - Language - Psychology, Political Psychology, Political Spychology, Politics

≈ 7 Comments

Tags

authoritarian, book notice, book review, Craig Unger, Donald J. Trump, House of Putin, House of Trump, integrity in office, money laundering, national security, political absolutism, presidential character, Russian mafia, United States, Vladimir Putin

Trump-Helsinki2018-moment

all I can do is ask the question my people came to me dan coates came to me and some others they said they think it’s Russia I have president putin he just said it’s not russia i will say this i don’t see any reason why it would be I will tell you that President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today and what he did is an incredible offer he offered to have the people working on the case come and work with their investigators with respect to the people I think that’s an incredible offer

Guardian News. “Key moments from the Trump-Putin press conference.” Start: 0:0:07. Transcript machine generated. July 16, 2018.

BackChannels has lived long enough to see “Active Measures” become a movie, “alternative facts” obtain traction in the arguments of some lost souls, and the “Fake News!” rise up en masse to denounce the source of the accusation. Now the whole ugly stain attending the deeply foreign influenced election of America’s president has begun to seep and spread from the infernal nucleus of the Russian marriage between State and Mob and now a hint of the presence of the same in the United States of America.

How soon will the journalists be asking of the Russian mafia — and mafia generally — in America, “How broad, how deep, how high, how powerful?”

cover-HouseOfTrumpHouseOfPutin

“Dear friends, respected colleagues!” Nikonov said. “Three minutes ago Hillary Clinton admitted her defeat in US presidential elections and a second ago Trump started his speech as an elected president of the United States of America and I congratulate you on this.”

Even though Nikonov did not add what many in the Kremlin already knew, his brief statement was greeted by enthusiastic applause. Donald J. Trump had just become Vladimir Putin’s man in the White House.

Unger, Craig. House of Trump, House of Putin: The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia. Page 1. New York: Dutton, 2018.

While readers may not find evidence quite so “hard” as a memo or recording between “Don” and “Vlad”, the darkly glittering atmosphere brewed by dirty or shady businesses, related events, FBI and other investigations, and innumerable lawsuits in all directions (with Trump Administration scandals, even the lawyers have needed lawyers) the preponderance of the evidence — in the worlds of investigators and journalists alike, the character of personal associations and relationship — becomes inescapable.

***

The art of reading has been changed by “broadband Internet”: these days, one may snooze between the hardcovers but also depart from any event or noun mentioned to find source and related materials online — or to chat with the “journo” should the same be so nice and unhurried as regards giving up a piece of his time o’ day. With a book as rich in coverage as Craig Unger’s, there are mentions aplenty for mining. Page 147, for example, a simple flip-open (it could have been any other page or chapter), makes mention of somebody “Nogueira” and a Reuters investigation — and a minute later, now listed in reference, Brad Brooks’ piece comes up (and may be read separately). Of the man noted, here’s one more excerpt from Unger’s new book:

According to conversations secretly recorded by a former business partner, in 2013 Nogueira said he had laundered tens of millions of dollars through real estate. “More important than the money from real estate was being able to launder the drug money — there were much larger amounts involved,” he said in the recording. “When I was in Panama I was regularly laundering money for more than a dozen companies.”

Nogueira told Reuters that he became the leading broker for the project thanks in part to the support of Trump’s daughter Ivanka, who appeared in a promotional video with him.

What did Donald Trump do?

Trump licensed his name — attractive and synonymous with glamour, power, and wealth — to the project of interest and many others worldwide. What crime could there have been in that? His organization also held management contracts on real estate projects, but here BackChannels will leave the details to the curious among readers; however, the same litmus applies: he nailed a service contract: so what?

On the other hand, perhaps the “so what?” is in the “with whom” and the true “for what”.

At the end of his book, Unger notes, “Donald Trump has repeatedly said he has nothing to do with Russia. Below are fifty-nine Trump connections to Russia” (p. 265). “Below” begins with Roman Abramovich and ends with Viktor Yanukovych.