A Real Nuclear Option for Orbán’s Hungary - EU Scream podcast

Call it the real nuclear option for bringing Viktor Orbán’s Hungary to heel — 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 Orbán has fashioned an autocracy and set about cultivating the EU’s strategic rivals. Introducing an expulsion threat could push EU autocrats like Orbán 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, Tom’s 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 — an EU 2.0 — 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 doesn’t go to plan — think obdurate legislators, sudden calls for referendums, or a even French demand for more subsidies — the exercise could usher in the kind of political warfare that sinks the EU for good. Tom’s goal is, above all, to end what he calls fatalistic and defeatist thinking — that the EU must remain stuck in perpetuity with Orbán’s brand of kleptocratic illiberalism. “Supranational union with an autocratic state is a choice,” insists Tom. “EU member states can also choose to disengage.” In this episode Tom also reflects on what happened a quarter-century ago, when European authorities failed to block Austria’s far-right Freedom Party (FPÖ) 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 — and he knows it | Opinion

by Thom Hartmann, April 28, 2025

"It didn’t happen in some shadowy back alley or under the cover of night.

"It happened in broad daylight — in the heart of an American courthouse.

"Federal agents, acting without even the decency of a signed warrant, stormed into Judge #HannahDugan’s 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 America’s judiciary: 'Fall in line — or you’re next.'

"In that moment, the world’s oldest democracy lurched closer to the edge of #AuthoritarianRule. In that moment, America became a little less free — and a lot more like the nightmare #VladimirPutin always hoped we’d 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 #PamBondi’s performance Friday — after her federal agents swarm-raided this county judge — wasn’t staged for the general public.

"The real audience was a very small, select group: America’s 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 — Congress — and now he’s in the process of pacifying the Article III branch, the Judiciary.

"There are only 3 branches to our government: cowing both Congress and the nation’s 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 he’s 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 Trump’s 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 they’ve pacified every single Republican member of Congress (most recently, Don Bacon criticized Trump’s 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. Trump’s. Way. Except We The People. And he knows it.

"Look at the striking parallels between Putin’s strategies and Trump’s actions:

"From installing Trump’s 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 GOP’s efforts to rig elections and purge voters, Trump’s subversion of US democracy looks eerily familiar.

"He’s taking pages directly from the autocrat’s handbook.

"Trump has openly quoted and praised autocrats like Putin and Hungarian strongman #ViktorOrbán, who has presented his leadership in speeches to the GOP and CPAC as a model of an '#illiberal' state.

"Trump’s not hiding his admiration for dictators; he’s flaunting it. And now he’s putting the final stages of their script into action.

"Trump’s movement toward authoritarianism follows 'a known playbook. It’s 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 “have managed to push America into that space somewhere between (no longer) democracy and full-scale autocracy.”

"The speed is shocking, but it shouldn’t be surprising. It only took #Hitler #53Days to completely end democracy in Germany. Others, like Lukashenko, Orbán, Putin, Mussolini, Duterte, El-Sisi, and Erdoğan took longer (none longer than two years), but you could argue that Trump has been working at this project for 9 years now."

Read more:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/only-one-thing-is-going-to-stand-in-trump-s-way-and-he-knows-it-opinion/ar-AA1DMg7z?ocid=winp2fptaskbarent&cvid=49790001a22c4193dcd61f5b6b4b4c74&ei=22

#Fascism #TrumpIsABully #USPol #TrumpIsPutinsPuppet #CharacteristicsOfFascism
#ResistAuthoritarianism

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 Daylight“ (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.

#Bezos

Reactionary, Racist, anti-Democratic, faux-Centrists and Far-Right Social Regressives are intellectually, emotionally, and socially dishonest.

No, the ‘Woke Agenda’ Isn’t Ruining Society ― Here’s Why
Jessica Kellgren-Fozard
#Culture #Politics #LGBTQ #Trans #Illiberal #Monopolistic #brOligarchy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfYP9uJ5gUE