Perched above the Danube, for $105,000 per year, Rod Dreher and his ilk was proven wrong, once again, by the Hungarian people, whom they chose to stay ignorant of in their ivory tower of secular pleasure. The Hungarian masses, who paid for their lavish, haute think tank lifestyle, said “Enough!”

Dreher deserves the scorn he gets. I’d take his burden for 100 large per year.

Where does it say in the Bible that cushy jobs, nice apartments, infinite wine and oyster trips to Paris come for free?

My hands aren’t red typing this. Some self-reflecting austerity might be in order for the ivory tower dwellers of Budapest. The local elections by their patrons were lost, after all.

A diet of fish sticks, maybe?

It’s what Jesus would do. (Based on the cup scene from Indiana Jones 3.)

There’s a hilarious post on J’accuse by “Franz Pokorny” about The Danube Institute, who seems to be an insider. It’s a bit bitchy, a bit gossipy, but very entertaining. Take it with a grain of paprika:

J’accuse

The Strange Death of Orbánism

$105,000 — that’s how much Rod Dreher cost the Hungarian taxpayer last year, according to freedom of information requests by investigative journalism website Átlátszó. Roughly three times the average…

Read more

13 days ago · 196 likes · 22 comments · J’accuse

(Rod) Dreher, […] works for the Danube Institute, the prize pear on a cheese platter of right-wing institutions set up by the outgoing Hungarian prime minister to make Budapest, […], “the new European capital of conservatism”.

The first thought that comes to my mind about The Danube Institute is “nice real estate”. It’s also pretty much the only thought. Their offices are located in the Lónyay-Hatvany villa, on the side of the Castle Hill overlooking the Danube. A stunning piece of property.

I’m not the only one:

Chris offers a correction:

Actually, it’s both.

I used to keep an eye on this scene, but it was clear by 2022 that their output is utterly inconsequential. Haven’t paid much attention to them since. Did I miss out on anything? Extremely unlikely.

The Danube Institute’s biggest impact was the fake and gay outcry by Brussels (the city, not the idea) when they wanted to host a National Conservatism Conference there in 2024, a forum of dangerous ideas, unsafe for the locals. Spooky!

Rod Dreher, as long as he lives in Budapest, is not even the most dangerous intellectual in the apartment building where he resides.

The reason for this article is Borg’s comment on my main post-election post, prematurely lamenting the death of Mathias Corvinus Collegium (MCC), which, according to its own definition:

is an educational institution and research center devoted to the flourishing of the Hungarian nation. Focused on developing the skills and talents of young Hungarians, MCC provides supplemental education, without charge, to young Hungarians throughout the Carpathian Basin

And it’s part of the same government-funded, vaguely Orbanist, somewhat internationally focused — for lack of a more charitable word — blob that the Danube Institute is. I’ll call it the (broader) MCC universe.

I’m not personally privy to what goes on inside the MCC universe: I’m not a young conservative, and although I was once young, I was never a conservative. I’m also not a geriatric has-been foreigner of mediocre intellectual fame (or as we say in Hungary: “a somewhat famous faggot”) looking for a cushy retirement job, with occasional trips to Paris to sample the oysters.

If you’re young, conservative and ambitious, the MCC universe provides scholarships, events, a chance to network with like-minded people and learn the ropes to eventually become… one of the next generation of European conservative leaders? Or some shit. In itself admirable and purely meritocratic, as far as the youngsters go. Without such institutions, the Brusselites of the future would only come from the nepo babies of the elites, Left or Right.

Most of my knowledge comes from young people who took the opportunity to make a career in politics through the MCC universe: they are smart, hard-working, and infinitely more deserving of their place in the international political system than the nepo babies who usually fill these posts. Good for them!

However, the MCC universe is an order of magnitude greater than what is required to accomplish this objective. It’s lavishly overfunded.

Despite its magnificent facade (there’s even an MCC summer festival), the MCC universe seems insular. For those who are outside its walled garden, it has zero impact, in Hungary and abroad.

Messing with it costs little, if any, political capital. So the new government does.

For young conservatives here who are eager to learn:

• The title is a play on philosopher-comedian Norm Macdonald’s famous sketch. Unlikely to be part of your curriculum.

• The subtitle is a play on the first line of mathematician-sociologist Ted Kaczynski’s manifesto. Unlikely to be part of your curriculum.

First on Tango Down: UK readers are familiar with the soft drink Tango. We used to have it in Hungary in the late 90s, and the ad campaign featured an orange guy. Fidesz’s party color is orange.

In a nutshell: Orban was beaten by a younger Orban. To be more precise: Hungarians elected a fresh, unencumbered Orban.

This statement would piss off 5+ million Hungarians: both the base of Viktor Orban (Fidesz) and Peter Magyar (Tisza) would be offended. Fortunately my audience is foreign, so I can be honest.

Orbán, Péter: I’ll be ditching the umlauts for clarity from now on.

The guy is an enigma. There’s a lot of wishful projection onto him by European elites and Hungarian voters that are unfounded. I’m also making a projection with the bold statement above, but mine is based on the few facts we know.

He spent most of his adult life in the political community of Fidesz, spent time in Brussels as part of their delegation, and was married to a high-ranking minister until 2023. All he promised was to get rid of Orban. Nothing more, nothing specific beyond the obvious implications, like a major positive shift in EU-Hungarian relations.

His bio up until now is ultimately irrelevant: he’ll be writing his new one with the carte blanche of a two-thirds majority in the coming months. We’ll know more by the 20th of August, when he’ll be in power for 100 days — a period Hungarians reserve to newcomers before we make a judgement1. 20th of August is a national holiday in Hungary, the anniversary of beating the Romanians in the Hyperwar 3000 years ago.2

The signs favor my prediction: he’s already made statements opposing mass immigration, and his prime candidate for Minister of Education and Culture is currently leading a Catholic religious institution.

We’ll know more by the 20th of August. Meanwhile, I’ll try to give you a bite-sized breakdown of the whole situation, what lead to this, in the coming weeks.

It’s nice to be back!

I’ve covered the basics starting from Election Day last November to Pence’s introduction of the Trumpian Stick to the European elite this February, then I’ve lain dormant in anticipation: will all this outspoken friendship between the PM of a small province and the Emperor bear any fruit beyond words?

9 months have passed and barely anything has happened, bar the occasional “Thank you Viktor, very cool!”. The double taxation treaty between the U.S. and Hungary, in effect from 1979 until 2022, when the demented Biden crime family and the homosexual gangsters running the State Department unilaterally terminated it in a petty fit, remained kaput.

It’s been 10 months since the inauguration, an entire year since the victory, and nothing to show for it in Budapest, beyond gestures — until this week.

The Hungarian delegation, which was pretty much the entire top government, flew on a Wizz Air Airbus to Washington. This prompted the usual, sadistic, small-dick energy posts from Hungarian Reddit — which is even more toxic than the English-speaking one — wishing for a plane crash. The plane had to stop in Iceland to refuel, as it lacks the range, but the choice was symbolic: since our national airline ceased operating in 2012, Wizz Air is our de facto flag carrier, being based in Hungary. As a European budget airline, it doesn’t operate intercontinental aircraft.

The fruits of this trip are still being debated and remain to be seen in practice, but the two important points are these:

1. Exemption from sanctions regarding Russian oil and gas imports

2. Support for the completion of our nuclear plant upgrade (Russian tech)

It’s the usual racket with America winning some contracts in exchange; but nobody complains, it’s the price of protection, even among the most bigly friends. The top dog’s slogan is “America first!”, what did you expect?

It’s excellent news for us, Hungarians. Aren’t you also happy?

If you’re disappointed or angry, there can be many reasons: Trump Derangement Syndrome, Orban Derangement Syndrome, wanting to win a nuclear war against Vatnikistan, loving Brussels more than your mother, whichever way the lizard people molested you to the point of mental retardation. Let me try to explain why you’re wrong! People love that.

I was a doomer before it was cool

The 2008 financial crisis caught me in a weak spot, being a university student with no income or savings, in a country which was already mismanaged to the point of recession by 2007.

I was understandably gloomy regarding my future prospects, so, while trying to kill boredom online, the Peak Oil theory caught me at the best/worst possible time. I went down that depressing hole deep and hard.

Peak Oil was not about “the oil running out”; on the contrary, it predicted that the economy would crash when half of it — the more expensive half — is still in the ground. I’m oversimplifying it. Just bear with me.

The autistic survivalists and hobby energy experts of the movement were desperately trying to find a way out of oil, a way to avoid the crash, but their conclusion — mind you, this was 15 years ago — was that you can’t out-solar-panel, out-windmill, out-battery your way away from hydrocarbons. The EROEI (Energy Returned on Energy Invested) is insufficient: renewables provide less Joules than the Joules they require to be made.

We need cheap and abundant energy to run a modern industrialized civilization.

We need oil.

Later, in the 2010s, after my doomer phase was over, I also learned that any serious renewable energy project needs an equal amount of turnkey natural gas backup to function.

We need oil and natural gas.

Can you show Hungary on a map?

Hungary is a middle-income economy, and as such, it’s stuck in the middle-income trap: we must remain cost-effective to remain competitive, otherwise foreign capital flees. If the energy bills go up, we don’t have less money to buy groceries; we have no money at all, because the multinational companies move to a more affordable country. Sanctions that raise energy prices hit us sooner and harder than they hit high-income countries.

We need affordable oil and natural gas, or we’re doomed.

There’s a historical reason why Russian pipelines and Russian reactors power Hungary: they used to be Soviet pipelines and Soviet reactors. The maps changed, the pipes stayed.

There’s a geographic reason why Russian pipelines and Russian reactors power Hungary: we’re right next to the Russkies (formerly the Soviet Union).

Hungary is a small, landlocked country, in the armpit of the Russkies, with the Balkans at our underbelly (don’t get me started on Romanians). I can think of better places to have my country, at lower latitudes to begin with, but here we are.

We have no seaport: even our American🇺🇸 LNG would have to come through the untrustworthy and usurious Balkan criminal enterprise known as “Croatia”. They’re already rubbing their swarthy, nicotine-stained hands, contemplating their cut from the Trump-Orban deal.

Imagine a diesel BMW, stolen from Western Europe, running on used cooking oil left over from the tourist season, with a bored Croatian inside scrolling his phone — also stolen from a tourist — in the middle of a “work” day. Why would you want to make such people happy?

Hungary is not in a position to be picky: we need cheap energy or our economy collapses. The same is true for Western Europe, which is already crumbling, but they have a lot more money to burn before the consequences catch up to them, we don’t; had we gone along with their sanction regime since 2022, it would have hit us way sooner and way harder. So far, we’ve dodged it, although having our economy intimately tied to Germany’s, our room to maneuver is severely constrained. If the Krauts continue to march towards industrial suicide, we’re also toast.

So, this deal is not a victory. The future of Hungary is not secure. But with all the animosity and insecurity this cursed decade has so far dumped on our country, it’s a huge relief. As far as gestures from superpowers go, it’s unprecedented in this century, and in hindsight, beats any gesture from the superpowers in the 20th century. It is a big, beautiful deal.

It’s also a good-natured, well-needed fuck you to an insanely belligerent Brussels, which is always appreciated, increasingly so throughout Europe.

Trump administration cancels $400 million in federal dollars for Columbia University

The Trump administration says it has canceled $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University over what it described as the school's failure to police antisemitism on campus.

— NPR

Academia is completely lost to the Right in the US, even more than the public sector. From a revolutionary MAGA perspective, it’s beyond saving, there’s no contest, nothing to recapture, nothing to save, it’s to be discarded, delenda est.

At this moment, “antisemitism” is still a potent political product in America. For a Republican, it’s also free to use. Not cheap, free. This might change. “Antisemitism” may lose its potency, might become costly to use, but for the moment, it’s potent and free.

Meanwhile, for the Left, “antisemitism” is a risky weapon that is very expensive to wield, better be avoided in a fight:

But you can’t choose the type of your weapon (or field of battle, whichever metaphor you prefer) in a fight that is initiated by your opponent, you have to meet him on his terms, and the Right is on the offensive; so it’s going to be “antisemitism”.

Trump & co. are using weaponized antisemitism to:

1. fuck with US academia

2. keep the Democrats divided

Antisemitism as a shield

This should also be obvious, but butthurt wignats got this wrong (as they tend to do). Remember the South Africa EO?

President Trump’s Executive Order on Addressing Egregious Actions of the Republic of South Africa

In shocking disregard of its citizens’ rights, the Republic of South Africa (South Africa) recently enacted Expropriation Act 13 of 2024 (Act), to enable the government of South Africa to seize ethnic minority Afrikaners’ agricultural property without compensation. This Act follows countless government policies designed to dismantle equal opportunity in employment, education, and business, and hateful rhetoric and government actions fueling disproportionate violence against racially disfavored landowners.

In addition, South Africa has taken aggressive positions towards the United States and its allies, including accusing Israel, not Hamas, of genocide in the International Court of Justice, and reinvigorating its relations with Iran to develop commercial, military, and nuclear arrangements.

This EO is a wignat’s dream: the president of the US going against anti-white policies. But that alone would be a rather sour pill, so it’s sugar-coated with pro-Israel bullshit.

A lesson from Orban

There’s no greater friend of Israel in the EU than Orban.

Loving Israel so hard it’s unreal costs him nothing, and the gains are potentially infinite (an irresistible ROI). For one, this provided him legitimacy within US capital R Republican circles as the Western elite was trying to isolate him.

Trump enjoys the same window of opportunity in the US right now, and he’s going to take full advantage of this. Decades of soft and hard power were put into pumping “antisemitism” out of proportion, and he’s ruthlessly robbing this political piggy bank to finance a crusade against the Left.

The Conservaboomer with a semi-secular devotion to Israel used to be an idiot — now he’s a more useful idiot.

Fuck with academia, keep the Dems divided. We love our Jews, don’t we, folks?

Link to the video of the speech. You can borrow the full transcript from here.

The reactions will slowly trickle in the following days, the speech was on Friday, timed to be a Valentine’s Day gift to the incel community.

If the Hungarian reactions are juicy enough, I will feature them next week. For now, I’d like to point out one important aspect of this tremendous, landmark speech; here are a few quotes, see if you can figure it our yourself:

I was struck that a former European commissioner went on television recently and sounded delighted that the Romanian government had just annulled an entire election.

I look to Sweden, where two weeks ago, the government convicted a Christian activist for participating in Quran burnings that resulted in his friend’s murder.

A little over two years ago, the British government charged Adam Smith Conner, a 51-year-old physiotherapist and an Army veteran, with the heinous crime of standing 50 metres from an abortion clinic

European elites and wannabe elites are obsessed with American culture, to the point of organizing BLM marches on their own territory, a ridiculously tone deaf move, especially during the peak of the COVID crisis:

Hungary in 2021 had many problems, excessive police brutality was none of them. Erecting a tiny, 3D printed, rainbow colored Statue of Liberty in the name of Black Lives Matter in a working class district of an Eastern European city, the delusion of the local politicians that they’re living in America is so mind-numbingly absurd that it’s impossible to ridicule.

It’s not entirely unreasonable for Euros to keep an eye on the Metropole of the Empire, I myself am guilty, and Orban just had a victory lap with Tucker Carlson, in Imperial English.

Vance did the reverse: as the vice president of the United States of America, he showed an awareness — and paternalistic care — of European grievances. An eagle might not catch European flies, but it’s definitely not beneath the vice eagle to do so.

He was rumored to have an extremely online personality — the topic highlighted in his speech supports this. Who else would care about these far away incidents but an American deeply immersed in right wing Twitter?

European reactionaries — either in opposition or in isolated power — hoping to gain from Trump’s reelection were rightfully worried that America First also means little focus on the Old World from Orange Man (he seems more interested in golf than Europe). After yesterday, they need not to worry: POTUS seems to have delegated these matters to Vance, giving the notoriously useless VP position some real power to throw around abroad. No overlap between the two, zero conflict of interest, sharper focus.

Orban pulled a stunt this week, hosting the leader of AfD, Alice Weidel, in Budapest. A risky move, given that they are unlikely to win the German elections due in a few weeks, and they are extremely unpopular among Euro elites. Orban hugged the Nazi Devil, what a reckless gambler — so was the reaction for a few days. (Never mind that Elon “Federal Employee no.1” Musk has already endorsed AfD.)

Then, on Friday, as he was already in Germany, Vance topped his revolutionary speech by meeting with Alice herself. The Vice President of the American Empire decided not to meet the current German leader, nor even the CDU candidate likely to win the upcoming election, but rather the leader of the most suppressed opposition party.

Orban did not gamble by embracing AfD at all: he was doing insider trading.

The elites feared that Europe will be abandoned by Trump 47; since Friday, they should be concerned by an increased attention and scrutiny.

Related and updated (“Europe will not be part of Ukraine-Russia peace talks, US envoy says”):

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Ukraine is realizing its role in the Victoria Nuland Plan (2014): to be a minefield that trips up Russia. A sacrifice to hurt Russia, and as a bonus, cuck Europe out of cheap resources. Putin was retarded enough to march onto this minefield, so the blame is shared among all three parties (Vicky, Kiev and Moscow).

Here’s the exchange that encapsulates today’s reality:

Lindsey Graham’s gloating about the low cost of this conflict for America — only stupid Slavs are dying, lol — is tasteless, even for a Neocon, but it’s true. Treasure him for his honesty!

If Ukraine and Europe want to avoid American C-17s from taking off, as they did from Kabul, and leave us holding the bag in this conflict, we, the pawns in the provinces, will have to pay concessions to the Metropole. It’s a shit deal from a selfish America that makes us look weak subordinates.

Except, America has always been selfish and we have been weak subordinates this entire time, all we’re losing is the illusion that we are equal partners in a noble endeavour.

Ukraine is learning the hard way what the rest of the Eastern Block learned in a softer fashion since 1990: that in the eyes of the West we are expendable and exploitable pawns. Our men, at best, are plumbers; our women, at best, are mail-order brides.

Only we, East-Europeans, can advocate for ourselves, we can’t outsource this responsibility to external powers: they will rob and rape us blind.

Ukraine certainly has the brainpower and the vitality to be a great country, it’s proving itself equal to a superpower in this war, to the surprise of the entire world; if only it had the self-respect to send Nuland away when she brought her poison plan to the table in 2014, today it would be a rapidly developing bridge between the EU and Russia, plagued by ferocious internal conflicts between power players, for sure, that’s a growing pain all Eastern Block members had to endure to become higher-trust societies, but it would not be in an explicit shooting war.

We don’t make decisions in the Empire that we’re peripheral to, the best we can do is adapt to the circumstances and take our own side. Always take our own side.

America has achieved everything it could realistically hope for in this war, so it has all the incentives to abandon it: Russia and Europe are separated, both hurt, Europe reduced to being a beggar. We have no other choice but to beg daddy not to abandon us at this hour with this mess. A terrible bargaining position with zero leverage on this side of the American Ocean.

It’s called being a pawn, Europe.

Update:

Europe will not be part of Ukraine-Russia peace talks, US envoy says

Keith Kellogg tells countries to offer concrete solutions and boost spending instead of complaining about talks role

Europe will be consulted – but ultimately excluded – from the planned peace talks between Russia, the US and Ukraine, Donald Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine has revealed.

Asked if Europe would be present at the planned talks, Keith Kellogg said he was from “the school of realism, and that is not going to happen”.

“It may be like chalk on the blackboard, it may grate a little bit, but I am telling you something that is really quite honest,” he said on Saturday.

“And to my European friends, I would say: get into the debate, not by complaining that you might, yes or no, be at the table, but by coming up with concrete proposals, ideas, ramp up [defence] spending.”

via The Guardian

If you disagree, please

Leave a comment

MZP (the tall one): One of Orban’s main rivals between 2018-2022, PM candidate of the united opposition from the fall of 2021. Once he becomes the candidate, his campaign is showered with State Dept./USAID/NGO money.

Zoltán Kész (the short one): somewhat autonomous opposition player, at this time the right hand of MZP. Deep in the Hunglish NGO Twitter to this day, per his feed.

Charles Gati (the old one): US-based veteran swamp creature focusing on telling the world (Hungarian media) that Orban = Hitler.

What’s more important about Charles is that he’s also been telling the world (Hungarian media) that Trump = Hitler. He just did it yesterday, but back in 2019, a month before this picture was taken, he was telling the world (Hungary) how hopeful he is about Trump’s impeachment.

This crew, being warmly received by the extended US State Department, is looking for support to defeat Orban, who is Trump’s most loyal supporter in Europe, who has been since he was running for the presidency in 2016:

Orban endorsed Trump in 2016, and in the past 8 years he never wavered when support for The Donald came up. Not even in the darkest of times—after his defeat, after the latest worst scandal, during his prosecution—did he waver.

Orban kept his dick in the nettle for Trump; he did it for 8 wild years, most of which Trump was either a lame president, unable to accomplish any of his promises, or a loser, to be tarnished, banished, punished and humiliated.

This is Trump 45’s State Department. This is Trump 45’s USAID funding the NGOs. These people, who are either explicitly or implicitly hostile to Trump 45 are openly bragging about getting funding from these institutions.

Why did Trump 45 let this happen? Because he had no idea, and even if he knew about it, he had bigger problems, he was forced to play defensive since day one, and lacked the loyal troops to accomplish anything. The Wall wasn’t built.

Trump 45 was a failure. Trump 47 learned from 45’s mistakes, and so did many others who joined his crew since.

USAID, for now, is down.

Gati’s fresh article starts with the famous Niemöller quote, laments the funding cuts, and ends on Auschwitz.

If we remove the 🚨NAZI ALARM🚨, it’s a lament about the funding cuts.

One such gambler is the EU-compatible Colonial Maverick, Donald Tusk, who, being a good student of the swamp made some unfortunate remarks in the past:

After being asked by a female journalist about his words about Donald Trump being ‘recruited by the Russian services 30 years ago’, he was squirming, whimpering, started talking about Mariusz Blaszczak, and then stated that he had ‘never made the suggestion’ that the President-elect of the United States even had agentic links with the Kremlin.

- Tusk's acrobatics after a journalist's question about his words on Trump and his ‘’acting as an agent‘’

That is a major oopsie, and I’m sure there are a few more hawkish janissaries in the colonies regretting going too far kicking Orange Man Bad while he was down, on the wrong side of history, at the end of history.

Even if you’re a more reserved fence-sitter, having never uttered a bad word about Trump, your newfound love for the man rings hollow.

One of Fidesz’s big-brain thinker, GFG, pointed out the strength of Orban’s position, when he was explaining why the latest Not Orban opposition leader in Hungary seemed pathetic when he also congratulated the president-elect.

The gesture is understandable. Not Orban aims to become the prime minister in 2026, so he will have to work with Trump. But it’s too little, too late.

Orban endorsed Trump in 2016, and in the past 8 years he never wavered when support for The Donald came up. Not even in the darkest of times—after his defeat, after the latest worst scandal, during his prosecution—did he waver.

Orban kept his dick in the nettle for Trump; he did it for 8 wild years, most of which Trump was either a lame president, unable to accomplish any of his promises, or a loser, to be tarnished, banished, punished and humiliated.

This remarkable loyalty is paying dividends for Orban right now; if you wish to be in the same good graces, it will cost you 8 hard years.

There are not shortcuts to the front of the line.

Hungarian mentality

Orban is not alone among his countrymen with this sentiment: Trump’s popularity is the highest in the EU in Hungary, after all.

We find sucking up to the European elites repulsive, especially when it’s done by our fellow former Eastern Block members. Hungary, in the latter half of its thousand-or-so-year history, was rarely sovereign; whether it be the Ottoman Porte, the Habsburg court or Moscow, people who eagerly submitted to the empire that ruled over us were - rightfully - viewed as traitors.

When a foreign celebrity shit-talks Hungary, some people will get unnerved by getting disapproval from their virtual friend in the West; most Hungarians, however, will react along the lines of “Fuck that cunt! He/she wouldn’t be able to show Hungary on a map!” And they’re probably right.

This makes us difficult to handle as a subject or an ally, costs us money and nerves at times, as it does right now in Brussels. It can also make us special friends with similarly-minded people, like the Poles, who are never too far away from telling everyone how kurwa they are, even if they pay dearly. God bless them.

But come the rare day like November 5, this stubborn attitude pays off, bigly.

Whatever advantage Hungarians get from Trump in office, we’ve earned it.

Western European elites failed at 1D chess:

The European elites, after being forced to sever relations with Russia, a nearby and cheap resource provider, then being ordered to sabotage relationships with China, a huge market that never forgets an insult, did so being assured that they can fall back on the United States.

Which is now MAGA country.

And they have no true love for Trump, as I wrote, and I presciently called upon an actress who’s about to take stage:

The Danish prime minister may congratulate Trump, but she does not do so in good humor.

Due to the retarded fight between Twitter and Substack, I can’t embed the tweet, so click this screenshot to see the video:

Powerful.

In the video, Belgian, Norwegian and Finnish governmentwomen stand defiantly on TikTok, assuring American women that they are here (as in, the other side of the Atlantic, with as much business in American affairs as Erdogan, in many ways less than Erdogan) to help. Stunning and brave.

Sorry, I confused Denmark with Norway above. Whatever, who cares.

Now, what help do American women need against Trump? I bet it’s some abortion crap, something The Donald was always neutral on, but that doesn’t matter, that’s reality, something these ladies are many degrees, in all possible dimensions, safely segregated from; only perception matters, and he’s perceived as the born-again Christian, boneheaded George W. Bush used to be, a conservatard bigot who beats helpless women with a bible (never mind that GWB since then ascended into the Liberal elite).

Judging by this video, American women are about to be hoarded into breeding farms to be impregnated against their will (a common sexual fantasy in liberal circles on social media), and the ever-progressive Eurowomen are presenting/representing a better alternative to the draconian shithole that the US is.

This implies abortions are taken lightly in Europe, that we’re some libertine paradise like it’s 1999 and the whole continent is one big Amsterdam.

Not so fast! Misinformation elects fascists! Misinformation kills!

Let us check the facts first!

Belgium

Up to 12 Weeks: Abortion is legal on request up to 12 weeks of pregnancy, calculated from conception (which is approximately 14 weeks from the last menstrual period).

After 12 Weeks: Abortions are permitted only under specific circumstances, such as when the woman's life is at risk or if the fetus is diagnosed with a serious and incurable disease.

Belgium prohibits abortions after 12 weeks except in cases where there are significant health risks to the woman or severe fetal anomalies.

In Belgium abortion is legal 12 weeks after conception, with many women travelling across the border to the Netherlands in order to terminate pregnancies later.

More than 300 women in Belgium, including those facing financial hardship, travel to the Netherlands to terminate their pregnancies each year.

- Euronews, September 2024

So it’s de facto 12 weeks. Let’s continue!

Finland

Up to 12 Weeks: Abortion is allowed but typically requires approval from one doctor. Certain conditions must be met, such as socio-economic reasons, the woman's age (under 17 or over 40), or having at least four children.

12 to 20 Weeks: Requires approval from the National Supervisory Authority for Welfare and Health (Valvira). Abortions are permitted under specific circumstances, like serious health risks or social reasons.

Up to 24 Weeks: Allowed if there are severe fetal abnormalities.

Finland requires an assessment for abortions after 12 weeks, but it is not entirely banned after 22 weeks. Abortions can be performed up to 24 weeks in cases of severe fetal defects.

Norway

Up to 12 Weeks: Abortion is legal on request.

12 to 18 Weeks: Requires approval from a medical assessment board. The board considers factors like the woman's health, social situation, and the fetus's health.

After 18 Weeks: Abortions are highly restricted and only allowed under exceptional circumstances, such as severe fetal abnormalities or if the woman's life is at risk. The legal limit is generally considered to be fetal viability, around 22 weeks.

Norway requires an assessment board's approval for abortions after 12 weeks and heavily restricts them after 18 weeks, with abortions generally not permitted after 22 weeks except under extraordinary circumstances.

America

I won’t go deep into the mess that is America, but it differs from state to state, and fetal viability (24-28 weeks) comes up in the most permissive regulations, also in Roe v. Wade (not as a time period, but as fetal viability).

Compared to Europe, per the Euronews article above:

The majority of countries have set the limit at 12 weeks. Spain and Austria allow abortion up until 14 weeks and have eschewed a mandatory reflection period. In Bulgaria, the limit is 20 weeks. In Poland, a country with a strong Catholic tradition, abortion is illegal apart from in cases where the pregnancy is the result of a criminal act or the woman's life is in danger.

Even the Sodom of the East, Bulgaria clocks in at a mere 20 weeks.

So, facts wise, not much substance to this video. But the dance moves were great!

💃🏻💅🏻

Previously on the reactions of provincials:

There’s no analogy in the Western press that I can think of right now; instead of hiding critical opinions from the opposition, they get a sadistic joy of sticking them on the front page, along with hawkish pro-government op eds. Comments are enabled for all the articles, unmoderated.

It’s a chaotic mess where every opinion has a chance to shine, where your bubble is never safe from prickling criticism, as it should be; an adult should be able to navigate such an unsafe public square of ideas without janitorial supervision.

When I open Mandiner, I experience a freedom that is long lost elsewhere.

Orban makes the top 5

Orban makes the top 5 in Trump’s president elect call list.

Some experts were previously concerned that the Hungarian Prime Minister was taking too many risks by openly and firmly supporting Trump throughout the campaign.

Mar-a-Lago is calling Budapest! We have had our first phone conversation with President Trump after the elections. We have great plans! – wrote Viktor Orbán on his official Facebook page.

Emmanuel Macron, President of France; Volodymyr Zelensky, President of Ukraine; Giorgia Meloni, Prime Minister of Italy; Keir Starmer, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom – and Viktor Orbán, Prime Minister of Hungary. The exact order is not public, but what is known is that Donald Trump was the first to call them following his remarkable success in the presidential election.

Hungarian conservatives were extremely exhausted by the hostility from our Western allies, to the point of giving up their Atlanticism and beginning to worship the Chechens, so their childlike joy at this turn of events is understandable, and as an Atlanticist myself, a relief:

All of this proves that after Trump's victory, Hungary has ascended to a new level in world politics. It is clear that Donald Trump did not contact Viktor Orbán first among the leaders because Hungary is in the same league as France, Italy, or the United Kingdom, nor because it plays a significant role in certain global processes, such as the ongoing war in Ukraine.

Trump called the Hungarian Prime Minister because he had supported him in the campaign from the very beginning, opposing all kinds of protests, accusations, and opposition. Now they can finally continue their work with their closest European ally.

Orban not only supported Trump in this campaign, he was also among the very few in 2016 who openly did so. An old love story is coming to fruition, again.

Furthermore, after Trump's victory, Hungary is among the few nations capable of establishing connections with the three leading world powers: the United States, Russia, and China.

Which is a major self-inflicted defeat by the rest of Europe in 1D chess, as I pointed it out previously.

Some comments from the top:

Oh dear libtards, the isolated Doctor Prime Minister is being called by the democratically elected president of the world's leading superpower, and we're laughing ourselves into shitting over you, you bastards.

As it turns out, no matter how strong the sovereigntist streak is in Hungarian conservatives, getting a confirmatory pat on the back from a foreign superpower feels just as sweet to them as it is to the opposition.

Let them have it, it’s their week!

Well, this is really something. There are about three hundred and a few countries in the world, and among them, at least 200 are definitely larger than us. The communists in Brussels and at home are getting strokes.

Good point from a citizen-journalist, the short list’s real value is in the longer list of absentees.

Scholz now wants to be in Viktor's place.

Among which the most prominent European one is the German chancellor.

Why didn't he call the Romanian Prime Minister? After all, they have been supporting Trump since he won the election.

There is a not entirely unfounded Hungarian joke that Romanians always betray their allies when the course of a war turns unfavorable.

Mandiner has already reported the Romanian congratulations to Trump as if Romania has switched sides, again, as their current government used to be 100% subservient to Biden’s state department.

If you’re offended by this harmless joke, please

Leave a comment

I appreciate that those who are now whining and railing against this would vote for Péter Magyar, because Manfred Weber patted him on the cheek

Orban has a new domestic rival in the long line of Caligula’s horses whose primary quality is that they’re Not Orban. It’s a story I won’t cover because it’s tabloid crap.

The point of this comment is that Orban’s former friend and EPP big wig Manfred Weber supports the latest Not Orban, which was celebrated by the opposition as a sign that Not Orban is not isolated like Real Orban.

Now Real Orban has a bigger elephant behind his back with Trump.

Talking about the “isolation” meme:

Hungary has once again isolated itself so much that, among the EU member states, we have the best relations with China, Russia, and from January 20, also with the USA.

I mean, where’s the lie?

If you like this format, leave a feedback and I’ll feature more colonial little people perspectives.

I enjoy reading these opinions and presenting them to a wider audience.

Cover image: Somewhere in Hungary, Google Street View from a bleak period, 2011

Overnight, Trump won again, big.

Donald Trump is unpopular in Western Europe. Whether this is due to Western Europe's arrogance, decadence, or half a century of cultural colonization by the US hegemonic liberal elite is a matter for sociologists — not science — to investigate.

Donald Trump is less disagreeable to Eastern Europe. Our critics say this is because our brains have not developed enough; our supporters say this is because our spines have not atrophied yet. Let the sociologists do the research — if we get an answer we like, it still won't be science.

This is how support for the two candidates at the European end of the wider American Empire stood among the non-voting public, divided into nation states:

Hungary won this one within the EU, big time. Implicitly, of course, since we had no vote. The most the government could do was to bet, which it did—all in for Trump. (There was no great risk involved; another Democratic government would have made no difference to our relations already at rock bottom.)

The Hungarian government won. It wasn’t victorious: we had no say in the race, we consume the US presidential election like we consume Netflix. We can only bet on it.

But this graph is not about the government; it's about popularity among the people, which is a base for the government and an indicator of the ideological pressures of the dominant soft powers in the country — from universities to the independent press.

The Danish prime minister may congratulate Trump, but she does not do so in good humor.

For those who like graphs, here's the source, and here’s a similar survey.

Overnight, we have become the European bastion of Atlanticism, America's best friend, and the rapid pace of this 180-degree turn shows how much this is worth: not completely worthless, better than being European Satan in Washington's eyes, but not a necessity.

That is why it is not worth building a domestic policy based on the US embassy, because if there is a change of personnel there, the ground disappears from under your feet. Domestic policy has to work even if the US ambassador is diplomatically indifferent, and if it is really good, it works even if he is hostile.

Make America Great Again, and fix double taxation, ASAP!

🇭🇺❤️🇺🇸

This article was originally published in Hungarian.

The European elites failed at 1D chess

The European elites, after being forced to sever relations with Russia, a nearby and cheap resource provider, then being ordered to sabotage relationships with China, a huge market that never forgets an insult, did so being assured that they can fall back on the United States.

Which is now MAGA country.

Well played!

Update: too little, too late:

I applaud the stamina of the likes of Matt Taibbi and Glenn Greenwald, who have kept on reporting the abuses of Hegemonic Liberalism that many of us have become aware of at least since GamerGate, and even found some joy in seeing the neophyte latecomers like Elon Musk joining the sport.

I have nothing else to add.

Humor and insight find common ground in simplicity: on this victorious day of a hopeful continuation of a political realignment that may deliver relief from the insanity that wants to bulldoze everything we’ve ever held precious in the broader West like a Glacier, on this day of a slight hope that this Glacier could be halted, I found the perfect reaction to all the salt one might encounter over Trump’s second victory:

Whenever I see a reaction from Leftists, Liberals, Socialists, Greens, Centrists, “honorable” Conservatives, colonial-mindset Atlanticists, and the rest — whether they are political analysts, full-time politicians, influencers, or journalists, both in Hungary and abroad— this simple tweet is my reaction to their grief.

I’m tired of all of you, I’ve been tired for years, and today is my well-deserved rest.

Both political sides agree with this, and they also agree on the direction of this change (an ultra-extreme, violent Far Right reactionary explosion of bottled-up rage). One side warns about this; the other threatens with it, but they both agree.

The Extinction Rebellion is not being shadow banned for their radical message, it would be ridiculous to claim so, even in our Clown World.

“I’m super woke and I get death threats from trolls” - of course you do. What else can the little people do? They can’t fire you from your job. They can’t put you on a worthy blacklist. They have no power, after all.

Hungary’s last explicitly Far Right, racist, antisemitic party, Jobbik, was pulling 20% for a while around 2010. Were they a threat to anyone in power? Absolutely not, for the same reason: they had no power over the elites. They barely had power over individuals in the lower classes.

The Woke package is extremely unpopular.

The Woke package is the revolutionary Far Left ideology meant to transform society through thinly veiled malice, quietly indoctrinating university students in the West before Obama’s second term, only being noticed by the few normies who had the misfortune of encountering recently graduated, mostly female rainbow guards with the mistaken assumption that they wanted to argue in good faith. It’s the ideology that went mainstream after 2013, seemingly overnight, as a shock therapy in the US, eventually being adopted with great servility in the broader American Empire by the end of the 2010s on all levels of power, public and private. Advocating for it was risky, and still is; it still requires real bravery, because the unwashed masses hate it.

One needs moderators, gatekeepers, fact-checkers, like private guards, to be protected while they scold the masses with a megaphone; if this line were to break, the mob would flood in to take revenge. And this is just the online space, IRL, you need real guards, real police, real physical separation; you need to be on the lucky side of an elite apartheid to have the luxury to be woke both online and in real life.

It’s dangerous, pushing unpopular crap on the majority, requiring real bravery—but it’s not a rebellion.

Can you advertise your rebellion on LinkedIn and benefit from it? If so, you are not a rebel, not a victim of harassment any more than an oppressor who suffers backlash.

You are a little tyrant, a member of the comprador bourgeoisie of Hegemonic Liberalism.

Of course, those people who disagree with you online could also be bots. Nazi bots. You are popular, a rebel, a rockstar, and only Nazi robots may doubt that. That is a possibility.

Addendum

Consider the powerless little maggot who threatened or trolled the woke person on social media—the latter using their real name and face, their whole career in their bio; the former being some nickname with an anime avatar.

On one hand, there’s zero chance of any real repercussion. On the other, if the Eye of Sauron - backed by the woke person by well-entrenched institutional support - decides to hunt down the pesky little maggot, the maggot’s life is in existential danger.

A knock on the shittiest door of the most run-down, rented hole by the mightiest cameras is in order. No forgiveness, for the rest of their lives.

Who is braver? Who risks more? Who is the rebel, and who represents an authoritarian regime? And how long can such a regime endure before a blowback?

American sexuality is fucked up: it’s extremely liberal when it comes to fetishes, and extremely prude when it comes to normality.

To show how self-contradictory American sexual morality is, meet the latest panic: putting clothes on e-girls (internet whores).

DignifAI

4chan has launched a new AI tool

Its purpose is to put clothes back on e-girls and remove tattoos

It is called dignifAI

-

https://twitter.com/JackPosobiec/status/1753416551066181672

Original 4chan thread:

With the power of AI we can put clothes on women

AI porn makes them angry.
But use AI to clothe them, remove their tattoos and piercings..

The seething will echo through the ages.

>brute force psychological warfare is back on the menu

You can find more listed in this unofficial account (and this) or just searching for the hashtag, there’s also this 4chan archive search.

The reaction is more violent than using AI to strip women naked. It’s akin to throwing acid in their faces or honor killing them.

It is a crusade for some. In the photo above, anon made sure to censor the OnlyFans link, to avoid weak men from driving traffic to the online prostitute’s business.

Some may call these anons incels; but they’re only doing a mild form of modesty-enforcement that many — mostly Muslim — cultures are known for, cultures that are refreshingly assertive, sexually, to the liberal female mind, fetishized, some might say.

It’s normality used as a troll.

It’s an inverse of the supposed need of (pig) men, women to be sex objects, angering women by reverting them from sex objects to something more wholesome.

Do your fun sociological research on the subject, start with the two links above.

Moving on to:

A small win for this Sunday

Over Tiffany, who is an online prostitute (“confident woman”) with 165 thousand followers on Twitter.

Tiffany posted a photo of herself, it got DignifAId, and, for a few hours, this happened:

With a lot less followers, and a lot less views, the DignifAId version received more likes.

Her post was ratiod. You might not think much of this, but internet-brained people, including internet prostitutes, count their likes obsessively. Decency, for a brief period, won.

It’s a small victory, but count even the smallest one, as a confident woman counts here likes! Have a decent Sunday!

Asks no one in Western Europe, ever. No one serious.

It really doesn’t matter what pasta-wielding lunatic may or may not get into power, what he or she promises to the Italians. It doesn’t matter what Italians want.

Italy’s nuts are in a financial iron grip, and punishing a dissident Italy would meet little resistance in the EU; they are already viewed as one of the black, Mediterranean sheep for being fiscally irresponsible, it’s entirely by the North’s good will that they hasn’t been squashed like bugs yet.

Italy can choose to try and keep the stagnant, unsustainable prosperity it enjoys with the help of the EU, or attempt to achieve sovereignty with an instant loss of aid and a Brexit-level hostility from the European establishment.

The weak Italian governments always go with the former. Any bravado is zero calorie.

This is why Meloni turned out to be a lemoni. The articles kvetching about the coming of She-Hitler, The Migrant Eater aged like fundamental European values.

But what if your spicy little country is more defiant than Italy?

Have you heard what’s going on in Poland?

Asks no one in Western Europe, because they are relieved to be able to finally ignore the pesky Polacks.

Poland became an EU darling overnight after electing a Colonial Maverick coalition; force-feeding jailed MPs on hunger strike is perfectly fine by the Western establishment.

As it turns out, Poland’s criticism was all about who’s in power, not how they’re doing stuff, what lofty Western ideal these bonehead Slavs might be plumbing over, left without adult supervision. Once the EU’s guys came in, they could go full Bolshevik, Moscow didn’t mind it; pour the concrete wherever you want to, just make the end result gay and subservient. Mostly subservient. But also gay. Just follow the imperial guideline, to the letter, the latest version, and read all future memos!

Calling Brussels the new Moscow and the EU the Soviet Union might be a stretch, but it’s an analogy that we, in the Easter Block, had earned to throw around. Some of these fuckers still erect Lenin statues, today, after all. Let us have this privilege, it’s our colonialism, our slavery!

Anyone who criticises us is racist! I’m👏being👏oppressed👏!

I can’t breathe! That is, not without EU funds! Or can I? More on that later.

January 17: the fundamental value goalposts move

Earlier this month, a somewhat hazy communiqué from the general direction of Ursula von der Leyen arrived regarding Hungary’s withheld dole, which began with the usual “rule of law” excuse, but ended with LGBTQ rights and migrants, as the reason why 20 billion euros of these funds will remain frozen.

Even this DW article can’t really make heads or tails:

Though billions more remain blocked over alleged violations of LGBTQ+ and migrant rights — plus concerns about academic freedom

So, what began as a “rule of law“ thing now mutated into other excuses. The article is all over the place, it’s Hungary bad, bad, bad written on the blackboard over and over by the teacher’s pet. Hungary’s so bad that I’m going to throw some soup at the Mona Lisa!

Hungary Today interpreted the message as such:

“Every cent owed to Hungary must be paid; ideological blackmail is unacceptable,” Fidesz MEP Balázs Hidvéghi stressed in Strasbourg on Wednesday, after European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen declared that the EU would continue to withhold EUR 20 billion from Hungary due to concerns over LGBTQ rights, academic freedom, and asylum.

This goalpost moving is not a surprise to Big Dick Vik, as I’ve already covered here, twice:

October 2022:

And with the fulfilment of these 17 points, can the current game with EU funds finally be brought to an end?

I am afraid not. I assume that there will be more and more requests after these. Look at the way the Poles are being treated! They have done everything that has been demanded of them, that had been mutually agreed before. But then new demands are put on the table, solely to continue to withhold from the Poles the resources that are due to them. Clearly, this is about forcing a change of government in Poland.

[...]

We are now dealing with 17 demands. We will meet all of them. But I bet that immediately after that there will be an 18th, a 19th and so on...

This latest, January 17 message is confusing because it’s confusing. It’s axiomatically confusing. What about the 17 or how many points of contention which was the original set of requirements to unfreeze which was frozen because of some bullshit, requirements that we had to and had fulfilled a year ago? What’s with the gay migrants suddenly? Is there any requirement we can meet if the core of the issue is they just hate our face?

The cynical interpretation of the EU’s fuckery is not exclusive to government loyalists: the opposition’s chief sovereignist, whose article about US meddling in the Hungarian elections I was fortunate to feature in English, András Schiffer repeatedly point out:

They want to bring sovereign governments to their knees, it’s about bleeding them to death

The funds now being withheld are not handouts, we have paid a heavy price for EU accession. We dismantled our customs borders in the 1990s, too early, we sold off our productive capacity, and we gave up and are giving up development tools that would have been essential to break out of the middle-income bracket.

In another interview:

The EU has no intention of defending the rule of law, but to squash all sovereignist aspirations

It was my theoretical proposal that Hungary should not pay its contribution to the European Union's budget. He added that if Hungary stands on the ground of Community law, it cannot afford not to pay its fair share, just like the European Commission cannot withhold EU funds on grounds that cannot be justified by the rule of law regulation mechanism.

They are playing a strange game with the rule of law, said the former president of LMP, who said there are serious problems with the Hungarian rule of law, but it is absolutely true that the legislator is also bound by the law it creates. Schiffer said it was a strange game the Commission was playing when it was taking the rule of law to task in some member states, while it itself was interpreting Community law flexibly.

Member states should form an alliance in order to jointly exercise control over the EU, stressed András Schiffer, who said there was a need to "iron in the rule of law standards". The European Union has no intention of remedying problems of the rule of law, but wants to make it clear that it will reject any sovereign aspirations, any deviation from the Atlanticist centre.

January 28: a Financial Times article drops

Titled “Brussels threatens to hit Hungary’s economy if Viktor Orbán vetoes Ukraine aid“. You can borrow it from my local village library.

It’s written by a bunch of interchangeable swamp journos. What it lacks in credentials it makes up for in audacity. It’s Fidesz paranoia porn, of the most potent kind. The article’s off to a good start:

The EU will sabotage Hungary’s economy if Budapest blocks fresh aid to Ukraine at a summit this week

In a document drawn up by EU officials and seen by the Financial Times, Brussels has outlined a strategy to explicitly target Hungary’s economic weaknesses, imperil its currency and drive a collapse in investor confidence in a bid to hurt “jobs and growth” if Budapest refuses to lift its veto against the aid to Kyiv.

Not very nice. Read the whole article!

Swamp journo daydreaming or not, the reactions make it worthy of a feature, even our prime minister, Big Dick Vik chimed in on it:

In response to the suggestion that a high-ranking official of the European Council denied the allegations published in the Financial Times, Mr Orbán said we have some experience in international politics, “we’re not exactly nursery school pupils.” If the Financial Times publishes a document which details the script of a financial blockade and blackmail against Hungary, there is no doubt that such a document exists, he stated. 

In fact, all the government big wigs and alpha journos commented on the piece, except our foreign minister, who was visiting Ukraine the very same day. The FT article managed to steal his thunder a bit.

Big Dick Vik continues:

The latest complaints relate to migration and gender which have nothing to do with corruption or the quality of the judiciary. It is evident that the rule of law is not the real argument against Hungary

[…]

the European institutions do not take the rule of law seriously, it is only a means to blackmail countries which seek to preserve their sovereignty and have an opinion of their own. It is important for the European people to understand that if the Member States do not agree on issues such as the war, migration and gender, they are immediately faced with an imperialistic reaction from Brussels and are subjected to a form of blackmail, he stated.

There’s one thing I haven’t mentioned so far: the money to Ukraine, which is the only leverage Big Dick Vik has against the people whose requirements are impossible to meet.

Should Ukraine get 50 billion from the EU?

I don’t know. Maybe, maybe not this way, maybe in no way, not from the EU anyway.

The problem is that the people of Europe are not unanimously behind an answer, not as unanimously as the representatives of the member states are. Even the Financial Times commenters are divided on Big Dick Vik’s stance, some voicing their support.

Back to the article:

While 26 member states have a plan B to send money to Kyiv outside the EU budget, that would require national parliaments’ ratification, causing delays and uncertainty. 

Unpopularity, really. Unpopularity at home. The 2024 European Parliament election is happening this June, never mind any national, municipal elections. You bet that Orban’s position is more popular in the electorate of any member state than the 26 to 1 he has going into the summit.

They are in the inverse of the trap of Big Dick Vik’s: he needs the EU funds to keep his popularity at home, so he has to use any leverage he has on EU matters to get it. The others need his vote, to avoid being forced to test the popularity of the proposal back home.

Big Dick Vik and Ursula’s ilk could easily make a deal. We have already established that this fuckery is not about the “rule of law” or all the new, fundamental European values that didn’t exist before 2013. It’s about power, and while the EU, Ursula, Davos, and whatever swamp-dwelling lizard people have Orban living in their anus, rent free, poking it with a fork, certainly have the power to hurt Hungary, it’s a bad look for their pristine, impartial, professional and fair image.

It’s an abuse of power. It makes them look like Moscow. The Soviet one. Or the current, whichever you prefer as a stand in for a blunt tyrant.

It makes them look like Elon Musk! Who bans people from Twitter when they are mean to him! A mean baby with a lot of power!

Not someone you want to have as a boss, as a partner. Not someone you should trust.

We can actually breathe

The FT article states:

Without that funding, “financial markets and European and international companies might be less interested to invest in Hungary”, the document stated. Such punishment “could quickly trigger a further increase of the cost of funding of the public deficit and a drop in the currency”.

So they plan to George Floyd our unruly little fentanyl addict country. But are we addicted, really? Can the knee of Brussels on our neck suffocate the economy?

Leave a comment

The market has already priced in total hostility and zero funds from the EU, years ago. They are only threatening a return to normal, as far as we and the markets are concerned. The forint got a huge hit during the worst late/post-COVID period, and since that it kind of recovered. The economy didn’t crash. This austerity even forced Orban’s government to do responsible things like

1. Postpone a ridiculously overpriced and absolutely inessential airport purchase

2. Push bonds on the population to finance the deficit internally, in local currency

The biggest hit our economy received in the past few years was self-inflicted, as Fidesz lost the confidence coming into the 2022 election and showered the state-dependent electorate with free money, a very uncharacteristic move from an otherwise fiscally conservative party.

Read the two eurocents’ of Philip Pilkington, who dismisses the article:

Whoever wrote it seems to think that if EU funds are withheld from Hungary, the Hungarian currency, the forint, will collapse. This is the only really meaty threat in the piece. But the forint is determined like most other DM currencies: by Hungary’s relative inflation rate and the central bank interest rate. Throughout the previous inflation, the central bank managed the forint’s adjustment pretty well.

My guess is that there’s some projection going on here. The lawyers that wrote the ‘attack strategy’ are aware that Ukraine’s currency relies on foreign aid - the foreign aid that Hungary is disputing - and simply assume Hungary’s does too. Basic lawyer brain.

Keep your eyes open for the coming summit, we should see how well the “the rule of law” is respected, not in Hungary, but in the EU.

Rules are rules, whether they like your face or not.

Update: Poland’s former PM roars (a bit loo late)

Mateusz Morawiecki, after losing the election, finally speaks up:

On EU decision-making, he stressed that further centralising it "will lead nowhere" and will only help to strengthen the climate of radicalisation in all corners of Europe. He also stated that "there are successive attempts to blackmail Hungary and increase pressure on the country". The Law and Justice (PiS) party supports Prime Minister Viktor Orbán and his government in their fight against "brutal blackmailers who are devoid of any rights and violate all procedural norms".

“This is not how the European Union should work" he added.

He’s even open to Fidesz joining their EP faction.

I guess he and PiS now understands that Washington can’t and won’t help them fighting Brussels. A bit too late.

Because of Elon baby’s tantrum, these posts have a very limited reach on Twitter.

Like this post so it gets more prominence within Substack, and

Share

this post wherever you can! XOXO

Here’s a link to a copy of a Financial Times article you can borrow from my local village library. Please return it after you’ve read it, that way it’s not theft.

US attacks Hungary’s Orbán for ‘fantasy foreign policy’ that helps Putin

Hungarian prime minister’s actions harm unity of western alliance, says ambassador David Pressman

The US ambassador to Hungary has accused Prime Minister Viktor Orbán of running a “fantasy foreign policy” that serves the interests of the Kremlin and harms the unity of the Nato alliance.

In an interview with the Financial Times, David Pressman said the Hungarian government’s approach to international affairs was premised upon “imagined invaders” and a “fantasised Hungarophobia”.

I agree with the last point. Everyone loves Hungarians. Even those Romanian bastards!

He also criticised Orbán for “actively participating” in the US election campaign with his open support for Donald Trump and calls for President Joe Biden to quit, saying it was “not something we expect from allies”.

In a neat editing trick, let me quote a response from below the article, by Giovanni 🤌🏻

David Pressman is upset that Mr Orban is behaving like the head of a sovereign country and expresses his views on what he sees as a desirable outcome to the Presidential elections in the USA. However, Mr Pressman himself does not seem to be a stickler for diplomatic etiquette either.

Grazie, amore mio!

I may add that it would be a very daring display of hypocrisy from the ambassador to charge the Hungarian government with election inteference if the US government also participated in the Hungarian elections.

Moving on:

The Hungarian government’s decision to politicise its bilateral relationships with allies, including with the US, had left it “more isolated and more alone than it has been in a very long time”, he said.

That’s quite a claim, as Hungary simultaneously gets plenty of criticism for just wanting to make money and how we always welcome a mutual disinterest in the internal politics of our partners. It’s a frequent talking point that the Chinese don’t care what we put in our textbooks (neither does Putin, to be fair).

What Orban can rightly be criticised for is not keeping his mouth shut; the Austrians, the Netherlands and the German industrial elite does pretty much the same, trading with Satan for child blood if need be, and no one seems to care.

Orban is making steps to be a bit more neutral, but it’s a small commitment yet one that instantly enrages the more radical part of his base.

On Hungary being extremely isolated: I agree. Help us

On Tuesday, Hungary became the last holdout on ratifying Stockholm’s membership after Turkey’s lawmakers voted for it. Orbán says he is committed to the Scandinavian country’s accession but invited his Swedish counterpart Ulf Kristersson to Budapest to “negotiate”.

Well, he was in a difficult position of pushing for the acceptance of a new member in our alliance who’s openly hostile to us in the EU, calling us all sorts of Hitler, so Fidesz decided to milk this as much as they could, especially while Turkey also opposed the Scandinavian expansion of NATO, allowing Orban not to be the sole black sheep.

In the end, now that Turkey gave in, Sweden will be in NATO, and will call us all sorts of Hitler.

Why is “negotiate” in quotes, Financial Times? Can’t two countries negotiate, America? Is it such a “ridiculous” “assumption”? My fist is beginning to rise ✊🏿, but don’t worry, this colonial subject will not lose his nerves so easily. There are still bananas to pick from below the article, commenters are having some fun:

C1: Orbán is also courting the Chinese.

C2: What about Germany that sold a 25% stake of Hamburg Port to the Chinese?

That’s a different kind of courting. Just like the same Asian battery / electric car plant that destroys our environment and enslaves our population if built in Hungary, in Western Europe is a welcome development cheered on by the Greens.

C1: "He also criticised Orbán for “actively participating” in the US election"....hahaha, Mr. Pressman, this is exactly what You do in Hungary

C2: don't be naive - if they were, Orban would no longer be the leader of Hungary.

The problem both Brussels and Washington has, when it comes to supporting the removal of Orban is that they don’t understand Hungarians, therefore they have to rely on the Hungarian opposition to spend the funds allocated to this effort, who don’t really understand Hungarians themselves, being Budapest echo chamber lunatics.

These funds become fuel for the trash fire of this contraselected striver class, they are happy to receive it to keep their gig going on. Genuine opposition figures want Western funding to be cut off, because they want the currently established, certified loser opposition to collapse.

If I was in charge of Western money allocated to destroy Orban, I would fund the most vocal critics of the Hungarian opposition. Since this is a low time preference option, I don’t expect the current Western foreign policy establishment to pick it, as they behave like children throwing a tantrum - they fail the Stanford marshmallow experiment. Puritan zeal prefers naked power to cunning.

C1: So it's official. Orban is Putin's Proxy. Why not kick Hungary out of NATO and the EU?

C2: Or better yet - why don’t hungarians throw out Orban and embrace their western allies

To reiterate a quote by a Hungarian Conservative from my robber capitalism post:

Why did Hungarians choose Orban, despite the West's disapproval of his regime? Because in our experience, having a regime that the West approves of costs more.

Completely servile Euro-Atlanticism always ended in a catastrophe. This is not on us, it’s on the West: we gave the West the keys, and in return we got robbed, raped and laughed at. Not a single European or US politician voiced an opinion to treat us fairly, to pump the brakes when Western vulture capital went wild in the Wild East. Davos clapped. Our allies cheered.

I’m not happy that Hungarian calls for sovereignty are stemming from this resentment, but only because I, personally, don’t like to stew in negative emotion, in general. I’m an outlier.

We used to celebrate foreign owners taking control of Hungarian industries, 30 years ago. Who is responsible for Hungarians doing a 180 on this sentiment?

Leaving this question for the reader to answer, moving on to the juicy part of the interview:

“we’re prepared to use our leverage”

The ambassador said the US cared about Hungary and regarded it as an ally but it was highly unusual to have one that refused to engage with US security concerns. Orbán’s government “would prefer to wait out the current administration”.

[…]

Pressman said he saw no desire on the part of Orbán’s government to repair its relationship with the US administration, but he said Washington had leverage that it could use.

The US this month terminated a bilateral tax treaty with Hungary over multiple concerns. Last year it imposed sanctions on a Russian development bank headquartered in Budapest after Hungary failed to heed Washington’s warnings to close it down.

“We absolutely have leverage, that is true,” Pressman said. “And we’re prepared to use our leverage.”

I appreciate the honesty.

We, the ones outside America, are colonies of the empire, and such honesty helps a lot to dispel any illusion of sovereignty, equality, and the rest.

There’s plenty of illusion to dispel.

Take the Brits this week, when Tories are attempting to shame British nationalists for not wanting to sign up for military service to serve the goals of a regime that represents Victoria Nuland’s grudge, a regime they perceive as hostile to them:

Turning Point UK:

I won’t fight for a failed multicultural state.

I won’t fight for a country that has become the lapdog of globalists.

I won’t fight for a country that prioritises corporate interests over its people.

I won’t fight for a country that cares more about illegal migrants than it’s homeless people.

I won’t fight for a country that has swapped Christian values for the gender cult.

I won’t fight to defend soyboys and Marxists.

I won’t fight to defend corrupt politicians.

Albie:

Amazing how many self-professed “patriots” are not patriots at all.

Most are social media loud mouths, who wouldn’t know what duty to the nation was if it smacked them in the face.

To which I replied, in a context of decolonization:

You are confusing colonial servitude to the Global Hegemon with genuine patriotism towards one's own sovereign nation.

Your gotcha in simpler terms: are you an Indian nationalist? Go fight World War 2 for the British Empire!

Hungarian calls for more — yesteryear’s — intra-alliance sovereignty is the least of Our Alliance’s problems; in the West, the founding stock, the usual cannon fodder feels abandoned by the powers, rightfully so, as all they’ve been receiving from the elites, openly so since circa 2013, is pure hostility.

This extremely decadent strategy to antagonize the natives was sustainable, when we weren’t in a time of war.

Count Dankula:

W-w-where did all the British patriots go? Rule Britannia, britannia rules the waves? (Not the ones in the channel, apparently)

Turning this sentiment around will be a fun task for the elites, convincing the angry, deplorable colonials to fight for the empire. The New Europeans surely won’t, they’re not idiots.

Neither will I. ✊🏿

More colonial struggle

The head of Budapest’s public transport called passengers “turkeys before thanksgiving”. There’s a lot of outrage from the government media, trying to recapture Budapest in the upcoming municipal elections, at such a dehumanizing statement from a person appointed by the oppositional local government.

I disagree, I’d call the people of Budapest much worse than turkeys.

What I — and my fellow cultural freedom fighters — find infuriating is the motif of thanksgiving and turkeys. We are not America. ✊🏿 We don’t live in Netflix. ✊🏿

Dehumanize people through proper, Hungarian analogies! We don’t ask the pigs for their opinion before slaughter. We don’t ask grapes whether they want to be turned into wine or pálinka.

Enough of the American trash ✊🏿 ACAB ✊🏿

The book is a general lament of the Belle Époque from a Viennese, secular, upper middle class Jewish perspective. The author is around 60 at the time of writing, and you need to be tolerant of boomertastic attitudes of which he suffers from plenty.

I’ve selected these parts to offer reflection for those who might find it difficult to reflect upon themselves in the past 2 years, since COVID has been replaced by WAR.

In 1914 all the warring nations were already in a state of over-excitation and the worst rumor was immediately transformed into truth, the most absurd slander believed. In Germany men by the dozen swore that they had seen with their own eyes automobiles laden with gold going from France to Russia shortly before the outbreak of the war; the tales of gouged-out eyes and severed hands which appear on the third or fourth day of every war filled the newspapers. They did not know, those innocents who spread such lies, that the accusation of every possible cruelty against the enemy is as much war materiel as are munitions and planes, and that they are systematically taken out of storage at the beginning of every war. War does not permit itself to be coordinated with reason and righteousness. It needs stimulated emotions, enthusiasm for its own cause and hatred for the adversary.

It lies in human nature that deep emotion cannot be prolonged indefinitely, either in the individual or in a people, a fact that is known to all military organizations. Therefore it reguires an artificial stimulation, a constant "doping" of excitement; and this whipping up was to be performed by the intellectuals, the poets, the writers and the journalists, scrupulously or otherwise, honestly or as a matter of professional routine. They were to beat the drums of hatred and beat them they did, until the ears of the unprejudiced hummed and their hearts quaked. In Germany, in France, in Italy, in Russia, and in Belgium, they all obediently served the war propaganda and thus the mass delusion and mass hatred, instead of fighting against it.

The results were disastrous. At that time, propaganda not yet having worn itself thin in peace time, the nations believed everything that they saw in print in spite of thousands of disillusionments. And so the pure, beautiful, sacrificial enthusiasm of the opening days became gradually transformed into an orgy of the worst and most stupid impulses. In Vienna and Berlin one "fought" France and England in the Ringstrasse and the Friedrichstrasse, which was definitely more comfortable. The French and English signs on the shops were made to disappear and even a convent Zu den Englischen Fraulein had to change its name because the people were aroused, not knowing that englische referred to the angels and not the Anglo-Saxons. Sober merchants stamped or pasted Gott strafe England on their letters, and society ladies swore, (so they wrote to the newspapers), that never again would they speak a single word of French. Shakespeare was banned from the German stage, Mozart and Wagner from the French and English concert halls, German professors declared that Dante had been Germanic, the French that Beethoven had been a Belgian, intellectual culture was requisitioned without scruple from the enemy countries like grain and ore. It was not enough that thousands of peace-loving citizens were killing each other daily at the front. In the hinterland there was mutual berating and slandering of the great dead of the enemy countries, who had been slumbering in their graves for centuries. The mental confusion increased in absurdity. The cook at her stove, who had never been outside the city and had never looked at an atlas since her schooldays, believed that Austria could not endure without Sanchschak (a small frontier hamlet somewhere in Bosnia).

Cab drivers argued on the streets about the reparations to be imposed on France, fifty billions or a hundred, without knowing how much a billion was. There was no city, no group that had not fallen prey to this dreadful hysteria of hatred. The ministers preached from their pulpits, the Social Democrats, who but a month before had branded militarism as the greatest crime, clamored perhaps louder than all the others so as not to be classed as "people without a fatherland" in the words of Emperor Wilhelm. It was the war of an unsuspicious generation, and the greatest peril was the inexhaustible faith of the nations in the single-sided justice of their cause.

It soon became impossible to converse reasonably with anybody in the first war weeks of 1914. The most peaceable and the most good-natured were intoxicated with the smell of blood. Friends whom I had looked upon as decided individualists and even as philosophical anarchists, changed over night into fanatic patriots and from patriots into insatiable annexionists. Every conversation ended in some stupid phrase such as: "He who cannot hate cannot really love," or in coarse inculpations. Comrades with whom I had not quarrelled for years accused me rudely of no longer being an Austrian; why did I not go over to France or Belgium? They even hinted cautiously that sentiments such as that the war was a crime ought to be brought to the attention of the authorities, for "defeatists" - that nice word had just been invented in France - were the worst betrayers of the fatherland.

At the end of December 1914, thirty thousand letters came in daily, and finally twelve hundred people crowded together in the little Musée Rath in Geneva to answer and take care of the daily mail [as part of a Red Cross operation]. And among them, instead of selfishly doing his own work, labored the most human of poets: Romain Rolland.

By the time of Zweig’s writing, Romain Rolland, the most human of poets, was the most unapologetic cheerleader of Stalin, despite the purges that he was well aware of. So, grain of paprika and all.

But he had not forgotten his other duty, the duty of the artist to express his convictions even in the face of opposition of his own country and that of the entire belligerent world. In the Autumn of 1914, when most writers were out-shouting each other in hatred, and spat and bellowed atone another, he wrote that notable avowal Au-dessus de la mêlée, in which he fought against intellectual hatred between nations and demanded justice and humanity from all artists even in the midst of war. It was an article which, like no other of its time, aroused opinion and resulted in a controversial literature of its own.

For this was the favorable difference between the First World War and the second: in the first the word still had power. It had not yet been done to death by the organization of lies, by "propaganda," and people still considered the written word, they looked to it. Whereas in 1939 not a single pronouncement by any writer had the slightest effect either for good or evil, and up to the present no book, pamphlet, essay, or poem has stirred the masses to their core.

A sad state of affairs that’s also true to our times.

Aware of this authority of the poet, military leaders and officials sought to secure the services of the men of moral and intellectual prestige for their purposes. They were needed to declare, to prove, to confirm, that all the injustice, all the evil was piled up on the other side, and that all truth and all righteousness were on the side of their own nation. They could not get Rolland to do this.

Whoever reads the eight pages of the famous Au-dessus de la mêlée today will in all probability no longer comprehend its tremendous effect. All that Rolland postulated in it connotes, if read cooly and clearly, nothing but the most obvious of obvious truths. But these words were written in a time of mass insanity that can hardly be reconstructed today.

When the article appeared, the French super-patriots cried out as if they had picked up a red hot iron by mistake. In a trice Rolland was boycotted by his oldest friends, the book- sellers no longer dared to display Jean Christophe, the military authorities, who needed hatred to stimulate their soldiers, were already considering measures against him. One pamphlet after the other appeared with the argument: Ce qu 'on donne pendant la guerre d l'humanite est volé de la patrie. (What is given during the war for humanity is stolen from the homeland) But as always, the outcry proved that the blow had struck home.

Via Wikipedia:

At the beginning of November 1915, the press announced that the Nobel Prize in Literature was to be awarded to Rolland. This was seen by French nationalist intellectuals as an affront to their national honor. A few days later, amid heavy criticism in the press, and perhaps due to diplomatic pressure, the Swedish Academy announced that it would not award a prize in literature for 1915. The following year, however, it awarded the prize to Rolland as a "tribute to the great idealism of his writings as well as for the sympathy and truth with which he painted different types of humans."

Zweig visits Budapest (1917)

The hospital train in which I was returning [from the Eastern Front] arrived in Budapest in the early morning hours. I drove at once to a hotel to get some sleep; my only seat in the train had been my bag. Tired as I was, I slept until about eleven and then quickly got up to get my breakfast. I had gone only a few paces when I had to rub my eyes to make sure that I was not dreaming. It was one of those brilliant summer days that are spring in the morning and summer at noon, and Budapest was as beautiful and carefree as ever before.

Women in ·white dresses walked arm in arm with officers who suddenly appeared to me to be officers of quite a different army than that I had seen only yesterday and the day before yesterday. With the odor of iodoform of yesterday's ambulance train still in my clothes, my mouth, my nose, I saw how they bought bunches of violets and gallantly tendered them to their ladies, saw spotless automobiles with smoothly shaved and spotlessly dressed gentlemen ride through the streets. And all this but eight or nine hours away from the front by express train. But by what right could one judge these people? Was it not the most natural thing that, living, they sought to enjoy their lives? That because of the very feeling that everything was being threatened, that they had gathered together all that was to be gathered, the few fine clothes, the last good hours! It was just because one had seen how frail and perishable man is, whose life with all its memories, ecstasies, and knowledge can be destroyed in the thousandth part of a second by a little piece of lead, that one understood, why multitudes thronged to the gleaming river to join in the morning promenade, to see the sun, to feel themselves, their own blood, their own lives with perhaps heightened power. I had become almost reconciled to what at first had shocked me. But unfortunately the attentive waiter just then brought me a Viennese newspaper.

I tried to read it; and only then was I filled with rage and disgust. Here were all the phrases about the inflexible will to conquer, about the petty losses of our own troops and the gigantic losses of the enemy. Here it jumped out at me, naked, towering and unashamed, the lie of the war! No, it was not the promenaders, the careless, the carefree, who were to blame, but those alone who drove the war on with their words. But we too were guilty if we did not do our part against them.

It was only now that the true impulse was given me: one had to fight against war! The material lay ready within me, only this last visible confirmation of my instinct had been lacking to make me start. I had recognized the foe I was to fight-false heroism that prefers to send others to suffering and death, the cheap optimism of the conscienceless prophets, both political and military who, boldly promising victory, prolong the war, and behind them the hired chorus, the "word makers of war" as Werfel has pilloried them in his beautiful poem. Whoever voiced a doubt hindered them in their patriotic concerns, whoever uttered a warning was ridiculed as a pessimist, whoever fought against the war in which they themselves did not suffer was branded as a traitor. It has always been the same, the eternal pack throughout the times, calling the prudent cowardly, the humane weak, only to be lost in the hour of catastrophe which they themselves wantonly conjure up.

From the very beginning I had no faith in victory and was certain of but one thing: that even if it could be achieved by immeasurable sacriftce, it could never justify that sacrifice. But I remained always alone among my friends with this warning, and the confused shouting about victory before the first shot, the division of the spoils before the first battle, often caused me to wonder if I alone were mad among all these wise men, or perhaps alone horribly aware in the midst of their intoxication.

A victorious peace (1917)

In Salzburg there was a small group of rigorously Catholic-minded men, two of whom were to play determining roles as chancellors in the post-war history of Austria, Heinrich Lammasch and Ignaz Seipel. The former was the most eminent teacher of public law of his day and had been chairman of the Peace Conference at The Hague; the other, Ignaz Seipel, a Catholic prelate of almost uncanny intelligence, was destined to take over the leadership of diminutive Austria after the collapse of the monarchy and upon that occasion give proof of his distinguished political genius. Both were pronounced pacifists, orthodox Catholics, fanatical 0ld-Austrians and, as such, in deep-rooted opposition to German, Prussian, Protestant militarism which they held to be incompatible with the traditional ideas of Austria and her Catholic mission.

If the pan-German clique in Germany continued to resist negotiations, Austria would have to take the initiative and act independently. He indicated that the young Emperor Karl had promised his support of their purposes; the result of his personal policy might very shortly become evident.

Well. Austrian bravery will surely prevail.

All depended now on whether Austria could muster enough energy to put through a negotiated peace instead of the "Victorious Peace" which the German military party demanded regardless of further sacrifices. At a pinch they would have to go the limit: Austria would have to renounce its alliance in good time, before the German militarists dragged her down to catastrophe. "Nobody can accuse us of a breach of faith," he said firmly and determinedly. "More than a million of our men are dead. We have sacrificed and done enough! Now, no more human lives, not a single one for German world-domination."

Boldog Karácsonyt!

For the new year

My comment from Niccolo’s article where wanted predictions for the current wars:

Ukraine and Russia forming an alliance and marching to The Channel unopposed.

It’s a wild one, but why not?

Early tries

Textures

Scenic

High performance

Body mod

Truck / Semi

Halt, Genosse! Es ist Coca-Cola Zeit!

Alternative propulsion

Military

Out of place

Pop culture / America

Le epic nerd shit and American culture shit. This really should be for kids.

Fortunately DALL-E’s content filter makes these hard to create, as it’s close to IPs, so that should curtail proliferation.

Space

Transparent

Out of time

Chinese cartoon

Toy / Cartoon

Posters

Do your duty, 5 year olds,

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Taller buildings

Skyscrapers in Budapest were always contested.

The Danube Canyon

Post Urbanite Status Reversal (Social Justice Budapest)

As an influential internet philosopher — me — once said: Budapest’s ego can only be corrected if its people have to line up to sell their daughter’s pussy for rotten potatoes.

Utopian Budapest

Fake history is an Eastern European game.

Olympic Games

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Bonus content:
“1930s Italian minimalism”

DALL-E 3’s interpretation of “doing something fun”: