RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:o25nys3qljrxeb2lp6o6fo7f/post/3lp4bxnkt4c2c
A Real Nuclear Option for OrbĂĄnâs Hungary - EU Scream podcast
Call it the real nuclear option for bringing Viktor OrbĂĄnâs Hungary to heel â but also call it a risky thought experiment. Tom Theuns of Leiden University wants to empower the EU to sever ties with a rogue member state like Hungary, where OrbĂĄn has fashioned an autocracy and set about cultivating the EUâs strategic rivals. Introducing an expulsion threat could push EU autocrats like OrbĂĄn to show more respect for rule of law and democracy, says Tom, while the current lack of any such mechanism has instead emboldened them. For now, Tomâs ideas still are legally theoretical, not to mention politically delicate. In his new book, Protecting Democracy in Europe, Tom envisages democratic states each leaving the EU and then immediately re-founding the Union â an EU 2.0 â minus any autocratic states. More than two dozen countries would need to coordinate national consents in advance, using the same EU treaty article that Britain used in Brexit. But if all doesnât go to plan â think obdurate legislators, sudden calls for referendums, or a even French demand for more subsidies â the exercise could usher in the kind of political warfare that sinks the EU for good. Tomâs goal is, above all, to end what he calls fatalistic and defeatist thinking â that the EU must remain stuck in perpetuity with OrbĂĄnâs brand of kleptocratic illiberalism. âSupranational union with an autocratic state is a choice,â insists Tom. âEU member states can also choose to disengage.â In this episode Tom also reflects on what happened a quarter-century ago, when European authorities failed to block Austriaâs far-right Freedom Party (FPĂ) from government, to elucidate a pattern of insufficient EU responses in the Hungarian context.
Only one thing is going to stand in Trump's way â and he knows it | Opinion
by Thom Hartmann, April 28, 2025
"It didnât happen in some shadowy back alley or under the cover of night.
"It happened in broad daylight â in the heart of an American courthouse.
"Federal agents, acting without even the decency of a signed warrant, stormed into Judge #HannahDuganâs courtroom on Friday morning and dragged her away like a common criminal. No warning. No legal process. No respect for the law she had spent a lifetime upholding.
"But they made sure the cameras were there, so America could see what they were doing. Because this was not about justice. This was about terror.
"This was a warning shot aimed directly at the beating heart of Americaâs judiciary: 'Fall in line â or youâre next.'
"In that moment, the worldâs oldest democracy lurched closer to the edge of #AuthoritarianRule. In that moment, America became a little less free â and a lot more like the nightmare #VladimirPutin always hoped weâd become.
"The FBI arrested Judge Hannah Dugan last Friday without even having a legal arrest #warrant; this is as outrageous and #PoliceState illegal as an administration can get.
"And #PamBondiâs performance Friday â after her federal agents swarm-raided this county judge â wasnât staged for the general public.
"The real audience was a very small, select group: Americaâs judges.
"Their message is very simple: 'P--- us off, judges, and you could end up in prison, too.'
"Trump has already pacified the Article I branch of government â Congress â and now heâs in the process of pacifying the Article III branch, the Judiciary.
"There are only 3 branches to our government: cowing both Congress and the nationâs Judiciary will leave only the president in charge of the entire country under all circumstances in all ways.
"Nothing and nobody else will be able to stop him, short of a military coup (and heâs already decapitated the senior leadership of the military) or unending demonstrations in the streets (demonstrators who may soon face live ammunition).
"That is called dictatorship. Real dictatorship. Vladimir Putin-style dictatorship where you are punished for the smallest deviation from orthodoxy and can find yourself in #prison or sued into #bankruptcy if you dare speak out in public.
"It appears more and more every day that #Putin is Trumpâs mentor, if not his handler. Trump is doing everything he can, with help from a South African billionaire, to destroy the historic American infrastructure (which has been an example for the world for 250 years) and turn us into the newest member of the #dictators club, joining Russia, China, Saudi Arabia, Belarus, Hungary, North Korea, and the rest of the #fascist and #authoritarian world.
"To get there, now that theyâve pacified every single Republican member of Congress (most recently, Don Bacon criticized Trumpâs schizophrenic tariffs; a day later he started talking about retiring), they only have to seize control of the Judiciary, and then nothing except We The People will stand in their way.
"Nothing. Will. Stand. In. Trumpâs. Way. Except We The People. And he knows it.
"Look at the striking parallels between Putinâs strategies and Trumpâs actions:
"From installing Trumpâs loyalists in the military and the federal police agencies of the Department of Justice and FBI, to his open threats against freedom of the press, to the GOPâs efforts to rig elections and purge voters, Trumpâs subversion of US democracy looks eerily familiar.
"Heâs taking pages directly from the autocratâs handbook.
"Trump has openly quoted and praised autocrats like Putin and Hungarian strongman #ViktorOrbĂĄn, who has presented his leadership in speeches to the GOP and CPAC as a model of an '#illiberal' state.
"Trumpâs not hiding his admiration for dictators; heâs flaunting it. And now heâs putting the final stages of their script into action.
"Trumpâs movement toward authoritarianism follows 'a known playbook. Itâs unfolded in many other countries,' as journalist Anne Applebaum notes. 'These are democratically elected leaders who characterize themselves or describe themselves as deserving of no opposition. So I am the true Hungarian, or I am the only real American.'
"In a mere matter of weeks into his presidency, Applebaum says, Trump and his allies âhave managed to push America into that space somewhere between (no longer) democracy and full-scale autocracy.â
"The speed is shocking, but it shouldnât be surprising. It only took #Hitler #53Days to completely end democracy in Germany. Others, like Lukashenko, OrbĂĄn, Putin, Mussolini, Duterte, El-Sisi, and ErdoÄan took longer (none longer than two years), but you could argue that Trump has been working at this project for 9 years now."
#Fascism #TrumpIsABully #USPol #TrumpIsPutinsPuppet #CharacteristicsOfFascism
#ResistAuthoritarianism
The goal is always the same, though: To use #prisonersâ bodies as weapons of political war & to do so against their will.
This is what evil, #illiberal regimes do.
Liberal regimes have standards for the treatment of prisoners. These standards are codified under the #GenevaConventions, which the #UnitedStates has signed & ratified.
Among the standards dictated by the Geneva Conventions is this: Prisoners may not be publicly exploited for purposes of #propaganda.
#Trump doubling (tripling? quadrupling?âŠ) down on #illiberal #authoritarian #StochasticTerrorism toward the #judiciary even going after conservative #SCOTUS Chief Justice #JohnRoberts (see pic).
#Boasberg #law #Constitution #ConstitutionalCrisis #ChecksAndBalances #JudicialBranch #Judiciary #SeparationOfPowers #CoEqualBranchesOfGovernment #AbuseOfPower
Doubling down on the #illiberal #StochasticTerrorism, #ElonMusk continues to broadcast #judicial impeachments all because they have ruled against him & #Trump.
BTWs it takes 67 senators to remove a judge w/ #impeachment, not 60, idiot.
#law #Constitution #ConstitutionalCrisis #ChecksAndBalances #JudicialBranch #Judiciary #SeparationOfPowers #CoEqualBranchesOfGovernment #AbuseOfPower
https://mastodon.social/@rballard/114074182560598504
When "#Democracy Dies in bright Daylightâ (Thomas Schwendener, https://www.linkedin.com/posts/thomas-schwendener-245459131_diese-nachricht-hat-jeff-bezos-an-die-mitarbeitenden-activity-7300588161385029632-vrVF?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_ios&rcm=ACoAAAHJrT4BvAu3tpYMMw4_2AcYH0v9qiK3X54)
Under the #illiberal motto of realising great #freedom for a few wealthy private individuals with their private ventures at the expense of the freedoms of the many members of our entire (global) #society.
Diese Nachricht hat Jeff Bezos an die Mitarbeitenden der The Washington Post geschickt. Ich schlage vor, die Zeitung Ă€ndert ihren Slogan: "Democracy Dies in bright Daylight". Bezos sass an der Trump-AmtseinfĂŒhrung in der ersten Reihe. Sein Konzern versucht seit Jahren selbst der Markt zu sein (und von den AbhĂ€ngigen Tribut abzuschöpfen). Was so jemand mit persönlicher Freiheit und freien MĂ€rkten meint, dĂŒrfte klar sein.
Reactionary, Racist, anti-Democratic, faux-Centrists and Far-Right Social Regressives are intellectually, emotionally, and socially dishonest.
No, the âWoke Agendaâ Isnât Ruining Society â Hereâs Why
Jessica Kellgren-Fozard
#Culture #Politics #LGBTQ #Trans #Illiberal #Monopolistic #brOligarchy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfYP9uJ5gUE
Since Donald Trumpâs election victory, we have witnessed striking accommodations to his narrow win and mandate
â what has been called anticipatory obedience.
Are we sleepwalking into an autocracy?
We hope not, and we would be glad if the threat does not materialize.
But as close observers of people and places where democracy has come under pressure and occasionally buckled,
we see creeping autocracy as a distinct and underdiscussed possibility.
We know well other nations, including Hungary and Poland, where leaders have steered policies that lead to a backsliding of democracy.
We see eerie similarities between what transpired in those countries and what Mr. Trump and his transition team have already done and promise to do.
Fortunately, we also have examples of countries that have pushed back on threats to democracy, -- and we can learn from them.
The Trump transition has featured the rapid-fire appointments of several cabinet officials who are both unqualified and potentially dangerous to the security and health of the American people.
The transition has also included a flurry of actual and threatened libel actions against critics,
followed by several media executives and owners caving in.
Business leaders with economic interests dependent on the federal government have also made nice with the president-elect,
who has threatened to use his regulatory power to pick favorites.
In a second term, Mr. Trumpâs actions may be even more dangerous
because he is now following the playbook created by #Viktor #Orban, the prime minister of Hungary,
who after losing and then regaining office moved his country from a democracy into an â#illiberal #state,â as he put it.
It was one of the faster collapses of a robust democracy on record.