Hungary: Next Stop on the Putsch Express

[Magda Hassan]

Hungary: Next Stop on the Putsch Express

Once is a conspiracy theory. Twice is a coincidence. Thrice gets people wondering. Four times and the polished denials begin as conspiracy theory has become neoliberal reality.[/FONT]

So it is in the Balkans, Central and Eastern Europe and former Soviet regions. Yugoslavia, Croatia, Chechnya, Georgia, Ukraine. And where next? The number has gone way beyond four - the time of polished denials. To deny the conspiracy is meaningless at this point for it is not merely a conspiracy shrouded in the minds of tin-hat quacks but it is in the open for all to see; that is, whoever wishes to open their eyes to what is happening.[/FONT]
Were the choice words of Victoria Nuland not enough? Was the feting of John McCain by Ukrainian fascists not enough? Or the continuous duplicity in the words of any official tasked with parroting the lines of democracy devised by the most undemocratic geopolitical Machiavellis? When duplicity and hypocrisy mix in the cauldron of Washington's witches' brew being stirred in Brussels' kitchen and served at tables in Tbilisi, Kiev, Grozny, and now Budapest.[/FONT]
And why Budapest? Why now? Why Hungary? Perhaps George Soros sees his days being numbered and he has saved his country for last. A collusion with the elites to rule his own country. Rather ironic that the NATO operations for liberty are now knocking on the door of Mr. Soros' country. Or, perhaps, less conspiratorial - for who wants to peddle in conspiracies? - it is simply the latest salvo in the war to prolong the life of a dying United States-NATO hegemon.[/FONT]
One wonders whether the denizens of think tanks in Europe and the United States lay their heads down at night and count Russians and Chinese and any member of the Global South jumping over rapidly shrinking stacks of US dollars and Euros. One Russian Nationalist, Two Chinese Communists, Three Iranian Scientists. Like a drumbeat they see the alliance of Russia and China, Russia and its former allies, China and Africa, Iran and South America - the world with itself, devoid of a cowering pandering to the dictates of the post-WW2 leaders of freedom. Perhaps they see this as their eyes close on feather down pillows. They see this and they know the nightmare is nigh. A pill they need. A pill called Putsch that is branded and copyrighted with its own bold imprint on the pill - "Civil Society Democracy".[/FONT]
But I digress...why Hungary? Just a few years ago, Prime Minister Viktor Orban was going to become the darling of Washington. He was a right-leaning centrist of sorts whose views on immigrants would make Republican xenophobes proud but was sufficiently in agreement with the European Union and global capitalism when it came to economics and foreign policy. He was our buddy who could be counted on to serve as a bulwark against a possibly rising Russia under Vladimir Putin. But time passed and we find ourselves in the mid-20teens with the European Union in free-fall, wracked by a collapsed economy and Western European nations caught between liberal nebbishes and xenophobic rightists. And as time passed, Prime Minister Orban cleverly decided to see which way the winds were blowing and they were blowing towards the Kremlin. Center-right governments in Europe are being outflanked on their Right yet still slavishly remain within the EU paradigm - a suicide wish when farther-right populism is rightfully (if from the wrong ideological rationale) calling them out as puppets of Brussels. Public support for austerity is not that fashionable among blue-collar workers in Europe it should be noted and Orban was attuned to this.[/FONT]
So whether from a desire to stay in power or an actual interest in helping his right-leaning Christian-minded constituency that had been left to rot by Europe in the new post-Soviet world of liberalism, Orban decided to shift from ally of the West alone to hedging his bets between the West and Russia. Yet 2012 may have been the turning point when he left puppet status and he spurned IMF demands (more on this later) and began growing closer to President Putin who by this time had become the ultimate thorn in the side of NATO. A resurgent Russia was always being countered by the West - whether in Chechnya or Georgia - but the game had suddenly intensified with President Putin deciding that Syria would not be lost, Crimea would be re-unified with Russia and Russia would stand up once again to the West.[/FONT]
This move by Orban to become part of the Russian orbit - defined as any country that does not swallow any fact-free attacks on Russia - marked him for targeting. Not only was Orban talking to Russia and attempting to navigate a non-aligned course but he was supportive of the boogeyman South Stream pipeline that Russia was planning - a pipeline that would navigate territory not controlled outright by the West. For a former Communist country to put this red flag in front of the West was, of course, verboten. Nevermind that Hungary had every economic reason to be non-aligned and find economic benefit from wherever it could in the face of EU collapse. In realpolitik, non-aligned means sleeping with the enemy - the Russian Bear.[/FONT]
Some may see Hungary's moves - both it's warming relations with Russia and support for the South Stream pipeline - as meaningless but for the United States every little country, every little leader, every little rebel group that opposes hegemony is a threat to be dealt with whether they are true rebels or are former allies like Orban who are now merely asking for some economic wiggle-room outside of IMF and Brussels dictates. And if there is really an honest questioning as to whether one country looking to have Russia as an economic partner is considered a threat one needs only to see the fate of the other Viktor - Viktor Yanukovych of Ukraine.[/FONT]
So it is that Viktor Orban has gone from reportedly praising U.S. Senator John McCain in 2008 as a "[/FONT]national hero in the most original sense of this expression" to John McCain now speaking of Hungary under Orban as "a nation that's on the verge of ceding its sovereignty to a neo-Fascist dictator".[i][/FONT][/FONT]
The usual key words are being bandied about by the guardians of democracy. Orban is destroying civil society, cracking down on NGOs, opposing liberal democracy and he is becoming a dictator. Of course, no small reason for this Western claptrap is Orban's decision to spurn IMF suggestions to cut pensions and remove a tax on banks. Again, one must recall that Orban is not anti-IMF by nature having been negotiating with the IMF but realizes that at a certain point, manure is simply manure. As he noted in 2012 in regards to IMF loan conditions he spurned: the deal "contains everything that is not in Hungary's interests."[ii] This was followed in 2013 by the head of Hungary's Central Bank, Gyorgy Matolcsy, writing a letter to IMF head Christine Lagarde and telling her to shutter the IMF's Budapest office as its services were no longer needed.[iii] Hungary was to fully repay its IMF loan with a bold "Adios" on the final check.[/FONT]
Warming relations with Russia, taxes on banks, not cutting pensions, spurning the IMF…all left for Orban to do to antagonize his former allies would be to send troops to support Hezbollah or some such effrontery.[/FONT]
Now there is never a country or leader who tries to break free of neoliberal policies and align with the enemies of Western freedom that is not marked for regime change for lack of a more diplomatic term. So it is that the question arises as to who in Hungary would take up the mantle as the reformer who will save Hungary from running headfirst and intentionally - down the path to an illiberal democracy. In the words of Orban himself:[/FONT]

"…the new state that we are building is an illiberal state, a non-liberal state. It does not deny foundational values of liberalism, as freedom, etc.. But it does not make this ideology a central element of state organization, but applies a specific, national, particular approach in its stead."[iv][/FONT]

This is the point where it gets difficult for the United States and Brussels. Finding a neoliberal apparatchik in Hungary will be a wee bit harder than it was in Ukraine. While Ukraine had neoliberals who had no qualms about using fascist muscle and US State Department funds to gain power, Hungary is not so simple. Hungary has fascists in the form of the surging Jobbik Party which is pushing Orban from the right, a Fidesz Party of which Orban is a member that is charting a self-proclaimed illiberal path, a Socialist Party that barely registers 10% support and several minor parties with little support.[/FONT]
The likely attempt at this point will be a cobbled-together coalition of Fidesz officials who will bought back to support right-leaning liberal policies that Orban once supported, "reformed for the camera" Jobbik blue collar voters, apolitical but corruption-opposing college students, random members of the nebulously-defined civil society and most valuably capitalist technocrats to round out the bit. Blue collar workers as the goon squads fighting for a dystopic utopia where civil society's technocrats will rule with a punch to the buttocks of the workers in the name of fiscal responsibility. Welcome back IMF.[/FONT]
Enter Zsolt Varady, capitalist tech entrepreneur and founder of the now-defunct Hungarian social media website iwiw.hu. If his name means nothing to you, etch it in your mind now as it is a name quietly making the rounds in reports on Hungarian protests.[/FONT]
Politically, Mr. Varady came to (im)maturity this past October in his novel lawsuit against every Hungarian political party for the crime of "creating and maintaining a tax system that compels enterprises to commit tax fraud and tax evasion". No real complaints with the dismantling of social welfare programs following the collapse of the socialist bloc. No. Simply a lawsuit blaming political parties for forcing corporations into tax fraud and evasion. Of all the complaints that could be laid before the feet of successive Hungarian governments, Mr. Varady decided on this.[/FONT]
Mr. Varady noted that his purpose in filing the legal proceedings - which he notes are merely "of secondary importance {to}…the related PR" was to improve "tax-paying morale"[v]. "To achieve an optimum tax system the state should be radically reformed. I cannot do that alone," he says. "We need the support of considerable sections of society. The activities of civil society can serve the much needed umbrella for these messages."[vi] To paraphrase: Business doesn't like Orban's taxes so the working class which we will call "civil society" will serve our interests by being the democratic face for our plans to change the tax code in support of a minority.[/FONT]
Strike one in favor of Mr. Vorady in the eyes of the West and IMF. Reform the tax code. Yet what of his political plans? Is he an idealist who wants to push a political agenda that may eventually conflict with foreign support for an Orban putsch? Well not at all. Indeed, he promotes as his next step in politicking the creation of "a website that helps people in civil society organization" which will be funded by "crowd-funding" and, here's the kicker: "Perhaps we can also receive assistance from foreign foundations and probably émigré Hungarians will also chip in."[vii][/FONT]
One can see the wheels turning in Mr. Vorady's eyes. He of the recent "civil society" protests in Hungary. He of the white knight status who can step into the void as the bridge between all the necessary groups to bring democracy to Hungary and freedom from fascism to civil society. The strategy of street protest led by "civil society" is classic for who can oppose the desires of civil people? But keep his above comment in mind. "We" - meaning his class of neoliberal entrepreneurs seeking help from "foreign foundations" "need the support of considerable sections of society" who will be the "umbrella for these messages". Yes my friends, the pictures of civil society will be broadcast while the true agenda will be hidden. The goal, as Mr. Vorady notes will be "new foundations" led by "teams of experts that are competent in their respective fields and are committed"[viii] otherwise known as malleable technocrats.[/FONT]
Mr. Vorady will be the counterpoint to Orban. An unelected Western-friendly gentleman simply looking to aid civil society against an elected modern-day "Mussolini" as Newsweek so appellated him[ix]. Mr. Vorady will reverse the so-called "Putinisation of Hungary" and return ill-defined liberal democracy to the nation.[/FONT]
In theory it sounds wonderful civil society having its rights. Yet rhetoric aside, the track record of Western-backed democratic upheavals needs to be viewed. The picture, as we know, is not too pretty of a sight. Hungary is next in line for "democratic change" brought by the winds of the United States' National Endowment for Democracy mixed with a touch of destabilization tactics from the CANVAS playbook of Srda Popovic[x]. [/FONT]
Lest anyone question Mr. Vorady's bona fides in being ready for the struggle, he has set the stage for force to be used by noting, despite lack of concrete examples, that "the Establishment" (read: the Orban government) "only understands the language of force".[/FONT]
The question as to whether Hungary will meet the wrath of Washington and Brussels is not so much "if", but "when".[/FONT]
Once is conspiracy theory. Twice is coincidence. And now it has become reality.[/FONT]

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[i] http://budapestbeacon.com/politics/senat...-dictator/[/FONT]

[ii] http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-19514325

[iii] http://www.spiegel.de/international/euro...11250.html

[iv] http://budapestbeacon.com/public-policy/...july-2014/

[v] http://www.budapesttelegraph.com/news/81...il_website

[vi] Ibid.

[vii] Ibid.

[viii] Ibid.

[ix] http://www.newsweek.com/hungarys-mussoli...ate-262127

[x] http://www.occupy.com/article/exposed-gl...m-stratfor



http://akahnnyc.blogspot.com.au/2015/01/...press.html

[Magda Hassan]

U.S. War Against Russia Is Now Against Hungary Too

Commentary by Eric Zuesse


Hungary has decided to align itself with Russia against the United States.


The Western Alliance is starting to fray, over the insistence by Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress to go to war against Russia.


This is called a new cold war,' but it's actually already a hot war within Ukraine, immediately next door to Russia.


America's plan to locate nuclear missiles there aimed against Russia has made stunning progress this year. The formerly neutral nation of Ukraine has now become officially anti-Russian. Because of the Obama coup, Ukraine is suffering a civil war between the Ukrainian regime that Obama's CIA and mercenaries installed in Kiev on 22 February 2014, versus the people in Ukraine's far eastern districts, where the Ukrainian President whom Obama was overthrowing had received around 90% of all the votes that had been cast there, and so the newly installed Obama regime in Kiev in the west was overwhelmingly rejected by them hence, Ukraine's civil war is raging there now, with Obama's Kiev regime trying to eliminate the residents there.


But, within the European Union, and especially among its former member-states of the Soviet Union, this is, as of yet, still only a cold war, which is in the process of heating up toward perhaps the super-hot temperature of a nuclear conflict between Russia and NATO (the latter organization consisting of the United States and its vassal nations against Russia). And America is already investing heavily in it.


According to German Economic News (GEN), on December 25th, "Hungary Will Not Take Part in the Cold War Against Russia." They report that, "Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban takes his distance from the EU, and accuses the US government of trying to instigate a new Cold War against Russia. Hungary will not participate." GEN also links to an earlier, October 19th, GEN article, which had reported that, "After Russia, Hungary is now apparently also being targeted by Americans: the United States is hitting senior Hungarian government officials and businessmen with entry bans. The Americans throw corruption-charges against the Hungarians."


Actually, the United States Government is also very corrupt, and uses corruption-charges against other nations' officials in order to provide a pretext to force them to buckle to America's aristocracy to become vassal nations. Will the U.S. Government now place entry-bans against high U.S. officials, also, such as against Joe Biden even now, and perhaps including against Barack Obama after his Presidency ends and he starts taking favors that are widely expected for him, on and from Wall Street (such as did his friend Timothy Geithner)? (And this was already after the cascade of corruption during George W. Bush's Presidency none of which Obama allowed to be investigated and prosecuted.)


In 2013, a Gallup poll asked Americans, "Is corruption widespread throughout the government in the United States?" and 73% said "Yes."But the corrupt Obama Administration pretends to be in the position of international arbiter against corruption in other corrupt nations. Whom is he fooling? (Perhaps people who don't read this news-site, for example?)


On Tuesday, December 23rd, Reuters headlined, "Hungary PM Orban: U.S. uses corruption charges to gain influence," and reported that, "The United States is using corruption allegations against some Hungarian public officials as a cover story' to boost its influence in central Europe amid the Russia-Ukraine conflict, Prime Minister Viktor Orban said on Tuesday. Orban's comments come amid a wider souring of relations between Hungary, a NATO ally, and the United States over what America perceives as Orban's increasingly authoritarian rule and Budapest's warm relations with Russia."


America's pervasive NSA snooping, militarizing of local police-forces, and invasions of Iraq, Syria, Libya, and other countries that never threatened the United States, are not considered (by the British Reuters) authoritarian,' but somehow Hungary now is authoritarian.' Suddenly (though the U.S. didn't say this when Hungary was trying to meet the demands of the American aristocracy), Hungary is authoritarian,' and is too' corrupt to do business with.


When more than two-thirds of the United States public are against the U.S. Government's selling arms to the Ukrainian Government, but 98% of the U.S. House of Representatives wants not only to sell them to Ukraine but to donate them to Ukraine, with U.S. taxpayers paying the tab for this largesse, and when 100% of the U.S. Senate then goes along with that, and the U.S. President signs it into law, how fake is American democracy'?


Even on such a vital war-and-peace issue as nuclear war, America's aristocracy, which overwhelmingly finances all elections' to national office, is controlling the U.S. Government, no matter what the U.S. public want.


Obama hasn't succeeded in fooling the American public into invading Russia, as George W. Bush succeeded in fooling the American public into invading Iraq, but now he won't even need to.


All of this trouble is being done in order to surround Russia with our nuclear missiles. It's not resulting from too much democracy; it's resulting from fake democracy.'


So: now we know that it's fake.


It's fake: that's the reality. Once this reality is understood, everything else can begin to make sense. Getting rid of the illusion from the lies from the many liars is the prerequisite to understanding. Before that, is only myths. They're getting more dangerous day-by-day. Nuclear war is deadly serious.


http://fortruss.blogspot.com.au/2014/12/...ainst.html