Taking off the gloves to slap the Dangerous Dandies with a Passel of Anchovies
They claim this is all about how a nice leader can help restore their families.
Orban’s appearance at the Conservative Political Action Conference, where he’ll be joined by former President Donald Trump and right-wing icons such as Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., is the most dramatic indication yet of how a leader criticized for pushing anti-democratic principles has become a hero to segments of the Republican Party.
Orban has curbed immigration and stymied those who envision a more middle-of-the-road European democracy for their country. He’s done so by seizing control of Hungary’s judiciary and media, leading many international analysts to label him as the face of a new wave of authoritarianism. He also is accused of enabling widespread corruption and nepotism, using state resources to enrich a tight circle of political allies.
The U.S. conservative movement’s embrace of Orban comes as it echoes Trump’s lies that he did not lose the 2020 presidential election, punishes Republicans who tried to hold him accountable for the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and embrace new voting restrictions. Many experts on Hungarian politics fear the GOP might aspire to Orban’s tactics.
“The Trumpist side of the Republican Party is coming for the rhetoric, but staying for the autocracy,” said Kim L. Schepple, a sociologist at Princeton University who has studied Orban. “I’m worried the attraction to Orban is only superficially the culture war stuff and more deeply about how to prevent power from ever rotating out of their hands.”
Conservatives dismiss that notion — or even the charge that Orban is an authoritarian.
“What we like about him is that he’s actually standing up for the freedom of his people against the tyranny of the EU,” said Matt Schlapp, head of CPAC, which meets in Dallas starting Aug. 4. “He’s captured the attention of a lot of people, including a lot of people in America who are worried about the decline of the family.”
Families decline from poverty. They decline from abuse, like the abuse from a controlling husband and/or daddy. They decline from secrecy which shields incest (which is nothing less than rape and pedophilia). They decline from under-education. They decline from lack of affordable healthcare.
Some decline because there’s an addiction, which again, can be aided with proper healthcare.
This stuff isn’t hard to figure out.
Or do they mean the decline of ‘our’ families? Like, that’s just not their call to make.
But decline of the family isn’t what this is really about. They’re attracted to strong men, bossy men, bully men because that makes them tingle in their special places.
And whenever a Republican says ‘I like A because of B’ they never tell the truth about what B is. They never want to say what the real reason is because…. they’re too ashamed to admit what the real reason is.
In this case, the reality is Orban is a very very very bad man, a corrupt and crooked leader, and many people will suffer from his corruption.
Which is what most Republicans secretly like. People suffering.
This is not how most Republicans always have been. It’s just absolutely clear that this is what most Republicans are like now. Mean. Selfish. And hiding behind a curtain of fake reasons for their failings: God, family, values, and don’t touch a cent of my money, my beliefs, my business practices BECAUSE NOBODY SHOULD TELL ME WHAT TO DO! but I get to fuck with every part of your life because I wanna.
And they really believe we can’t see through their lies.
Hey Viktor Orban! You’re not original. You’re not clever. You’re not charming. Like everyone on earth, your poo poo smells, someday you’ll die and you’ll be quickly forgotten. Historians will brand you as a loser. And man, inside and out, you ugly.
And why is there a fly on your lip?
I say these things because I’m trying to stop the decline of your family. And the weird-ass families of the neo-confederate Republicans.
Here in the states, we have the spurious case of Dr. Mehmet Oz running for Senate in PA instead of his home state of NJ.
If you believe in the My Pillow Fairy, you’re gonna love this guy. From Yahoo News, yesterday:
Dr. Mehmet Oz owns an undisclosed apartment in New Jersey that houses close associates of his who are linked to groups that have denied the ethnic cleansing which occurred in the formative years of the modern Turkish state.
Bergen County records show that since 2006 Oz and his wife have owned the condominium in the borough of Fairview, a seven-minute drive from their mansion overlooking the Hudson River, where the county sent the unit’s property tax bill as recently as this year. Yet this apartment is oddly absent from the otherwise exhaustive disclosure Oz made in April as a candidate for the U.S. senator from Pennsylvania.
Candidates are not obligated to report real estate holdings that do not produce revenue—but Oz did so for his other non-revenue producing properties, including the Cliffside Park address, his new home in Pennsylvania, and his residential holdings in Turkey, where the former daytime TV host’s parents were born. It was impossible to ascertain whether Oz received rent payments from the condo, as neither he nor his tenants replied to repeated requests for comment.
What was possible to ascertain is who those tenants are: a pair of apparent longtime friends deeply involved in Turkish nationalist activism and connected to groups that have fought to prevent the United States from recognizing the extermination of Armenians on Turkish territory during World War I—which Oz himself has refused to describe as a genocide, despite a consensus among respected historians.
An unlisted property, no comments to journalists inquiring about its rental status. No proof of any wrongdoing beyond a shared belief that Armenians genocided themselves because Turkey never. He registered to vote at his in-laws Pennsylvania address in 2020 but actually lives in New Jersey still.
And what does the eminent Dr. Mehmet have to appeal to the voters in his carpetbag quest?
The television personality, author, professor emeritus, and retired cardiothoracic surgeon “has promoted pseudoscience, alternative medicine, faith healing, and paranormal beliefs, which has earned him criticism from physicians, government officials, and medical and popular publications.” per his Wikipedia profile.
On the plus side: “He has helped develop numerous devices and procedures related to heart surgery, including the MitraClip and the left ventricular assist device (LVAD), and by 2015 held a number of patents related to heart surgery.”
But in 2015 a number of physicians at Columbia sought his dismissal as a professor there as they felt he was too disdainful of science-based medicine.
He also “promoted the use of hydroxychloroquine, an antimalarial drug, as a cure for COVID-19 on more than 25 Fox News broadcasts in March and April 2020” Two months later, the FDA “revoked emergency use authorization of hydroxychloroquine, saying that it was "no longer reasonable to believe" that the drug was effective against COVID-19 or that its benefits outweighed "known and potential risks"
But Dr. Mehmet’s advocacy of the drug convinced the President, furthering the spread of misinformation. Among his other claims considered lacking in scientific evidence, “included saying apple juice had unsafe levels of arsenic and cell phones could cause breast cancer.”
His positions to aid Pennsylvanians? “In 2007, Oz described himself as a "moderate Republican" and cited Arnold Schwarzenegger and Theodore Roosevelt as inspirations.” However… “Making his 2022 Senate campaign announcement in late 2021, Oz identified himself as a "conservative Republican".”
His shapeshifting didn’t end there. “Oz praised Anthony Fauci as a "pro" and lauded his role in combating the pandemic in 2020 and 2021. Upon running for the Senate, however, Oz changed his tone on Fauci and referred to him as a "tyrant".”
His shows have featured anti-vaxxers.
”As of 2019, Oz had previously supported abortion rights. He has publicly said that he disliked abortion on "a personal level" without further reasoning. He saw the effects of unsafe and illegal abortions prior to the Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide. He also noted at the time that he was opposed to six-week abortion bans.”
But this year after declaring his Senate candidacy he “announced that he supports overturning the Roe v. Wade decision and was against abortion, except for when the pregnant person's life is in danger or in cases of rape or incest.”
2014: more regulations on fracking including a halt till more environmental impact research completed.
2022: supports fracking and reduced regulations on it.
2017: waiting periods before gun purchases and a ban on assault rifles.
2022: supports red flag-style laws for people expressing dangerous behavior, but opposes a national red flag law registry.
2009-2010: Said "It should be mandatory that everybody in America have healthcare coverage. If you can't afford it, we have to give it to you..." and was in a pro-Obamacare ad.
2022: would vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act if elected and backs the more expensive Medicare Advantage Plus but just for seniors.
With those and other examples, his positions have changed to match what his chief supporter wants, DJ Trump. Just like a remora on a shark, he’s gotta groom that authoritarian ego.
Recent polling has him falling further behind Lt. Gov. John Fetterman in the Senate race. You’re likely to make good money betting that a loss would be followed by claims that the election was rigged, because of course he would.
Claiming citizenship in New Jersey, Turkey and now Pennsylvania, the Lizard of Oz identifies as ‘chameleon’.
And as for the shark being groomed?
That, and this, from AOL News yesterday:
Former President Donald Trump said in a statement Wednesday that he had notified CNN he was intending to file a defamation lawsuit against the news outlet for its refusal to back his discredited claims that election fraud accounted for his loss to Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential race.
“I have notified CNN of my intent to file a lawsuit over their repeated defamatory statements against me,” Trump's statement said. “I will also be commencing actions against other media outlets who have defamed me and defrauded the public regarding the overwhelming evidence of fraud throughout the 2020 election.”
In a letter dated July 21, 2022, and addressed to CNN's CEO Chris Licht and executive vice president and general counsel David Vigilante, lawyers for Trump cited numerous examples in which they maintain the former president was defamed.
“Accordingly, I hereby demand on behalf of President Donald Trump that CNN (1) immediately take down the false and defamatory publications, (2) immediately issue a full and fair retraction of the statements identified herein in as conspicuous a manner as they were originally published, and (3) immediately cease and desist from its continued use of ‘Big Lie’ and ‘lying’ when describing President Trump’s subjective belief regarding the integrity of the 2020 election,” the letter stated.
Which closes with this reminder:
”As of late February, Trump had filed 42 separate lawsuits since Election Day 2020 and lost them all. In December of last year, he did win a case in which Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers had asked a court to make the former president pay for the state’s legal fees in mounting a defense against Trump’s unsuccessful election lawsuit there.”
After all that, here’s a little light.
"And why is there a fly on your lip?" It couldn't take any more of Mike Pence bear-hugging the man who tried to get him (and the fly) killed, so it migrated to Hungary. Since that picture was take, it was jailed for being an illegal alien, and for violating Hungary's strict no-fly list.