Below is my English translation of Viktor Orbán’s commendation on the occasion of awarding U.S. Ambassador David B. Cornstein the Middle Cross of the Hungarian Order of Merit with Star, which the ambassador richly deserved. He has been a faithful supporter of the Hungarian autocrat’s illiberal regime.
♦ ♦ ♦
Dear David, dear Ambassador!
What the American ambassador is doing at this very moment, where he is going, whom he is meeting, is always of great interest in Hungary. Therefore, his departure is causing a minor earthquake. But before the assembly lines of the fake news factories started, he revealed his true reason: he wanted to go home to his grandson. This is something I can fully understand. Hungarian folk wisdom maintains that the English leave without saying goodbye while Hungarians say farewell but stay. Americans might fall between the two. Therefore, before he left us for good, we enticed him to return briefly in order to thank him for all the work he did in Hungary for the benefit of the Hungarian people. Thanks to his efforts, Hungarian-American relations have regained their former glitter.
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen!
It is a rare gift for an adult to find a friend but even rarer when a country finds a friend. We received this extraordinary gift from Providence and President Donald Trump. In just over two years, Ambassador Cornstein managed to get Hungarian-American relations back on track. A few years ago, we wouldn’t have thought there would be extensive cooperation between Hungary and the United States in diplomatic and foreign policy matters. We did not think that the United States would help Hungary as a friend nor that Hungary would also act as a friend of the United States in international politics. To preserve our sense of reality, I recall here a joke from my childhood about the mouse that turned to the elephant, “Can you hear how we roar?” With the election of President Trump and then with your arrival, everything changed. We felt openness, honesty, and a friendly attitude on the part of the United States.
Dear David!
It’s no wonder therefore that we are rooting for another victory for the President. And from here, we also congratulate him on choosing Amy Coney Barrett. It hasn’t happened for time immemorial that there has been such a strong majority of traditional American values on the Supreme Court. I am convinced that President Trump has saved conservative America and become one of the greatest American presidents. We wish him, and ourselves, total success in his election.
Dear Ladies and Gentlemen!
Experience tells us that, in difficult times, good patriots who have seen a lot, have been hardened in the rigors of business life are the ones who can set things right. This is the kind of man Hungarian-American relations needed. It needed an ambassador who bravely brushed aside those who, for whatever reason, were interested in tension between the United States and Hungary. That is what you did, and we are grateful to you for that. A good ambassador who knows us well and understands what we, Hungarians, think about Central Europe, the European Union, and the United States. And more importantly, he also understands how this seemingly complicated system comes together in our heads and lives. An ambassador who understands the spring of Hungarians’ minds and the key to their hearts. We know, dear David, that you also have Hungarian roots. However, we do not think of you as an honorary Hungarian. Because you treated us fairly and because you fell in love with Hungary, this country has taken you into its heart.
Dear Ambassador!
Please accept this award from us in recognition of your outstanding work in strengthening Hungarian-American diplomatic, economic, and trade relations and allow me, on behalf of the Hungarian people, to wish you good health, many happy moments with your family, and good luck with your future career! God bless the ambassador!
♦ ♦ ♦
Let me add a few comments from U.S. sources, including my own, about the disastrous tenure of David B. Cornstein between May 2018 and November 1, 2020, when he will leave Budapest for good.
The modest Hungarian prime minister’s reference to the mouse and the elephant
Let me start with a 2019 article from The New York Times, describing a Fourth of July party for 800 guests, costing $300,000. The guest of honor was Viktor Orbán. “For many in the room, it was a bewildering spectacle: an American ambassador lavishing praise on a far-right leader whose party has methodically eroded Hungarian democracy and pushed anti-Semitic tropes.” When Cornstein was reminded of the lack of democracy in Orbán’s Hungary, he told Szombat, a Jewish weekly: “I am a committed promoter of democracy. I believe in the rule of law, individual freedoms, freedom of religion, freedom of speech and press.” He added that “had I witnessed that the freedom of any individual or institution was put in danger, I’d be the first one to raise concerns.”
Cornstein was supposed to save the American Central European University, but “Cornstein’s sympathy for the university didn’t prove to be terribly deep. He didn’t see himself as an advocate for the U.S. chartered school so much as an honest broker, bringing two sides together, each with a valid case. ‘It is not Viktor Orbán and the government of Hungary alone that caused this to happen.’” He even felt some sympathy for Orbán: “If you see what has been said by Soros regarding Orbán, you would say, ‘I don’t want this guy near me. I don’t want anything to do with him.’”
I loved the article about Cornstein which appeared in November 2019 in The Lafayette, the student paper of Cornstein’s alma mater, Lafayette College. A senior, the president of the College Democrats, said that the way “one of our most high-profile alums is behaving, in my view, is utterly disgraceful, anti-democratic, anti-academic freedom. Given his ties to the college, it is really quite shameful.” The student continued: “He’s been participating in covering up suppression of academic freedom, the erosion of democracy.”
And finally, here is a quotation from one of my many articles on Trump’s ambassador to Hungary. “Cornstein, who spends as little time as possible in Hungary, could be hired as Orbán’s P.R. man, if he weren’t past retirement age (he’s 81). Hungary has had many mediocre American ambassadors, but Cornstein takes the cake.”
Good riddance, Mr. Ambassador. Let’s hope that the new American administration will appoint a replacement quickly, someone who has the interests of the United States and the Hungarian people in mind, instead of those of an illiberal state, which Cornstein has repeatedly defended.
I share the thoughts and feelings expressed by Professor Balogh today. as in 100% agreement. David Cornstein is as ignorant as he can be; I would say, willfully ignorant. He has been not only Orban’s enabler, he has been an enabler for Trump as well. Yes, good riddance to this foolish and ignorant man. Sadly, this article appears on the same day that the new President of Yad Vashem was announced in Israel by the Israeli Prime Minister, a political hack of extreme right wing views. Large associations of remaining Shoah survivors (Including, but not limited to former Jewish Hungarians) have denounced this move. Cornstein has also been a toady for that Prime Minister. I mention the Yad Vashem selection, especially given how Cornstein and the governments of both Israel and the USA have closed their eyes to the misrepresentation of the Shoah in Hungary by Orban’s regime. Despite the obscene “monument” on Liberty Square showing Hungary as the “victim” of nazi Germany, the actual reality was rather different as many readers of “Hungarian Spectrum” know. Doubtful that Cornstein ever bothered to read Randolph Braham or Istvan Deak regarding the the fact that Hungarian government employees did the actual deportations… Read more »
I wish had enough time to talk about Cornstein’s role as a representative of the far-right Israeli regime.
You already do so many wonderful things, but at least I put in a brief note on that related topic as a posted comment.
“far-right” has different meanings in Israel, in the US and in Hungary.
Think of this:
“Compassion of the wicked is cruelty”
(Proverbs 12:10)
Raffi Eitam has not been appointed to head Yad va-Shem yet.
“Investigation into antisemitism in the Labour Party”
http://sentpressrelease.com/pressrelease/attachment/259367/f3f6927a-b250-4d96-a067-a70b6e0bec1f/56c88e20-29e2-492c-b019-89b519d66092?fileDisplayName=investigation-into-antisemitism-in-the-labour-party.pdf
“Labour has suspended former party leader Jeremy Corbyn over his response to the Equality and Human Rights Commission’s report into antisemitism in the party during his leadership.
A Labour party spokesman said: “In light of his comments made today and his failure to retract them subsequently, the Labour Party has suspended Jeremy Corbyn pending investigation.”
guardian.co.uk
Democrats are making at least two big mistakes in the campaign to discourage people from voting for Trump.
No, Democrats should shout loud.
It is exactly Trump who wants to commit fraud!
Trump reads the polls. If the mail-in ballots are counted fully, he will lose the battleground states. If the counting is stopped by the Supreme court (packed not with legal scholars but with extremist political ideologues) then Trump will win.
Democrats should explain that in every state, a much larger percentage of pro-Biden people want to vote in mail than the pro-Trump folks. The explanation of this rests in the psychological differences between the groups.
I think perhaps you overestimate the general impact of the mass of Democrats. They make out an ideologically close knit, but geographically limited comunity. History shows that the vast American fringe-communities (such as the religiously bonded and the many scattered hard-core individualist self reliant families) regardless of prior political orientation, are generally undecided regarding most broad national issues. Their focus is on the near and local reality. Whether this is determined by geography, faith, economic basis (however humble or limited), these people do not contribute to the cultivation of nationally organized perspectives of the ideological or broad long term sort. They move with the wind, and decide on “the deals” that best serve their immediate needs. Not as a basis for long-time commitment, because they have to grab the opportunities at hand for a foreseeable future, or move on, in order to survive. This is why you have the unpredictable “swing states”. These voters are sceptical towards ideological commitment, they rely on what they have, and that is why promises of social security and long term principles for a more even distribution of wealth will not consistently sell the democratic ballot. It goes without saying, that distincions between pseudo-social ideas,… Read more »
“If Donald Trump is going to try to steal this election, here’s how he will do it—and how we can stop him.”
https://twitter.com/JulianCastro/status/1321103746764578819
“Philadelphia has a big job on its hands in counting the election, with as many as 350,000 mail-in ballots from the city, or more, to be counted inside the convention center downtown starting on the morning of election day.
The vote in Pennsylvania could be decided by the vote in Philadelphia, and the entire race in turn could come down to Pennsylvania. So the stakes are high.
Officials have advised that the vote-counting effort in the city, which processed only about 6,000 absentee ballots in 2016, will not be completed on election night and will likely take days.”
Battleground state: winner according to the average of the polls IF all mail-in ballots are counted:
Texas; Trump by 1.0%
Ohio; Trump by 0.8%
Iowa: Biden by 0.8%
Florida: Biden by 1.2%
Georgia: Biden by 1.4%
Arizona: Biden by 1.6%
North Carolina: Biden by 1.7%
Pennsylvania: Biden by 4.3%
Fake News!
Mark Levin: This Is Our Stand Against Tyranny
https://youtu.be/3n_S7X75KXI
Ah, another breitfart fan … 🙂 🙂
The evangelicals? They think he is taking on their sins for them, and suffering for them. “It’s like he’s Jesus”
That’s Republican Jesus; who, “loves borders, guns, unborn babies, and economic prosperity and hates homosexuality, taxes, welfare, and universal healthcare”
Nice!
Abortion is bad, but shooting people dead is a good thing. Gays are bad and healthcare is from the devil. The picture of all extreme right fans of Trump. Since Orbán don’t gives him a gun Orbán is out of the grace, while the rest of ugly right-wing extremism is typical Orbán as well. Disgusting!
Well, if there are less children born the NRA freaks have less people to use their weapons on.
And of course the killer states have less people to electrocute or poison to death.
Wolfi, did you ever had the impression that the most stupid people tend to have the most children?
To assume makes an ass out of u, and no body else.
tappanch the organization I have been helping to fund, the Lincoln Project, has been consistently working on limiting the vote of evangelicals for Trump. We are a political action committee that has been doing targeted advertising in this area with the support of “At Vote Common Good,” which is a group composed of Christian evangelical ministers, that has been working to reach religious voters, appealing to their conscience and trying to get 5 percent of evangelical Christians who voted for Trump in 2016 to engage their faith and not vote for him this year. I am not working on that project, but on US Army veterans. Similarly our goal is to reduce the vote of US Army veterans for Trump. My wife is working on a project to reduce the Trump vote from the native American community. Trump actually began trying to reach out to the tribes early on in his Presidency see https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/diversity-inclusion/476049-trump-signed-three-bills-affecting-native . Believe it or not there are many tribes in the USA who are traditionally Republicans since the Republican Party supported bills allowing tribal reservations to build casinos and develop other projects on tribal lands like selling gasoline with exemption from most taxes. Hopefully Trump will… Read more »
@Istvan (Chicago)
Thanks for your work and insight.
Istvan Ch
Thanks for your and your family’s work and may I, the atheist, say God bless you !
Many thanks, Istvan, if only there were more people in the USA like you and your wife …
It helps a lot to be retired. There are a lot of retired individuals along with underemployed, unemployed, and college students who are doing a lot of outreach to dissuade potential Trump voters and try to get Biden elected. There are also plenty on the side of Trump working pretty hard to get hime reelected.
Thanks for your efforts.
What reason do you have for your prophesies about Biden as a president? All these “falling outs” you don´t know yet about.
I really hope Biden does not take any republican as a cabinet member. Republicans are the ones who drove the car in the shit. I hope a maximum will be voted out.
One prophesy from me, within two weeks after Biden is president elect the republicans will make him responsible if the pandemic is not solved yet.
Btw, Cornstein is a life-long conservative too.
Well for example Jan those who are working together to unseat Trump who are retired from the military network together, well just like people are doing on Eva’s blog about Hungary. We know that Joe Biden was a promoter of bipartisanism during his career. It is good politics and blunts attacks. We all share information with each other, some is correct and some is wrong. We have all seen lists submitted to the Biden transition team, he has a formal 15-person advisory board that includes former South Bend, Indiana, Mayor Pete Buttigieg, in the area of international affairs former national security adviser Susan Rice, former Veterans Affairs secretary Bob McDonald who I have met several times, and on and on. From the lists I have seen and the one that appeared on CNN I did not see any of heavy hitters from the social democratic wing of the Party included on the advisory board. (there is a list here https://www.cnn.com/2020/09/05/politics/joe-biden-transition-team/index.html ). This article lists some Republicans being considered for Cabinet posts https://www.politico.com/news/2020/10/20/biden-transition-republican-cabinet-429972 . None of this matters if Trump is not defeated. That is the primary issue right now, there will be plenty of time to fight about the future if… Read more »
Then why don´t you wait with prophesizing bad politics from Biden till after this election Why make his character bad by writing he will immediately forget the Black Life Matters movement after the election while he is supporting them now. I really do not understand that. And again, if Biden wins it will be the republicans who voted for him, so let´s all thank the republicans. All the republican politicians who have a say in federal politics are garbage on the moment, supporting Trump till the very end. Carefully criticizing here and there but no vote is lost for the Trump business until the very bitter end. These people can never be trusted again. A nice republican project of well directed capitalism in the following links Republicans want to open pristine Alaska wilderness to logging. It’s a tragedy | Alaska | The Guardian Trump to gut protections in Alaska’s Tongass forest, the ‘lungs of the country’ | Environment | The Guardian If Biden needs to get republicans inside just for showing “reaching across the isle” it is a bad idea. On the contrary, if the democrats are able again (as Obama had to do) to get the country on the… Read more »
Recall the May 2019 interview with Mr Cornstein in the Atlantic Magazine:
“I can tell you, knowing the president [Trump] for a good 25 or 30 years,
that he would love to have the situation that Viktor Orbán has, but he doesn’t.”
This is an open admission that Trump’s ultimate goal is to create a dictatorship in the US [and like Orban’s and Erdogan’s, his ulterior motive is not ideological, but the desire to avoid justice for his financial shenanigans]. The Zeitgeist is the rule of the tyrannical crooks.
Source:
https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2019/06/george-soros-viktor-orban-ceu/588070/
Of course it is… Trump keeps repeating how much Putin, Xi, Kim like him and how well he goes along with them, ie. he’s trying to join the dictators club where Orbàn is already a member.
The entire practice of awarding ambassadorships to 4th rate political cronies is an absolute disgrace and must stop. There used to be a myth that oh, that doesn’t matter, the career diplomats in State are in control. Bullshit. The politically connected ambassador (however stupid and clueless he/she is, and basically that’s always that case) is always superior to politically unconnected grey bureaucrats, no matter how senior, who have zero connection to the president. That’s just the nature of power, the closer you are to the source of power (the president) the more influence, prestige (power) you have. Anybody who spent two minutes in politics know this. Power at lower levels is measured by access to the big man, simply as that, and the grey no-name bureaucrats have zero personal access to the big man and never will. As long as the US used to be the unquestioned global superpower this setup may have worked. But now that the US’ global position is clearly under challenge by China and Russia (as well as by Hungary, Turkey, Iran etc.), it is high time to do away with this idiotic and corrupt practice. It clearly causes damage to the US because with much… Read more »
I doubt the USA will adopt having as ambassadors foreign policy experts with area expertise, on occasion in exceptional situations where we are in active combat a professional will be appointed, but even then that is not likely. The current structure is based on our ancient spoils system (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spoils_system) When I served in Vietnam the ambassador to then South Vietnam was Ellsworth F. Bunker who had been CEO of the National Sugar Refining Company (which he inherited) and lobbyist for the US sugar industry. He was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom with Distinction twice. He spoke no Vietnamese, and understood very little about the culture of Vietnam. He supported both the polices of LBJ and later Nixon and retired from his position before the final collapse of South Vietnam. By the time I got to Vietnam in 1972, the US Army had developed a program for military advisers that included having limited Vietnamese language skills along with some knowledge of the culture and history of the area. While I was deficient in many Vietnamese skills, compared to ambassador Bunker I was a genius. He used at least one translator who later turned out to be a communist agent. Our embassy was heavily dependent… Read more »
Well, it would be high time for Biden to change previous practices.
There is no time for the US to waste with clueless political operators, it simply cannot afford incompetence the way it could 50 years ago.
This is a tradition (not a law) which Biden could actually change if he really wanted to.
OT:
That’s rational choice theory for you.
Check out point 7.
“Astonishingly, Republicans with high science knowledge are LESS likely than other Republicans to believe in human-induced climate change. Amongst Dems the reverse applies.”
https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/21/how-americans-see-climate-change-and-the-environment-in-7-charts/
Marty, that’s not relevant statistically – because the number of repugs with high science knowledge is just too small, so deviations are possible … 🙂 🙂
OT
At last:
Facebook has deleted the hateful site of Mi Hazánk, the Hun nazi party that likes to shred books.
Pusztastranger, thanks for the info!
Let’s not beat about the bush. The current Israeli prime minister, like Trump, may very well find himself in jail when he leaves office. That’s why he sucked up to Trump and still clings to his job. As for Cornstein, if I was an American taxpayer, I’d be demanding that he returned his pay.
“A variant [20A.EU1] of SARS-CoV-2 emerged in early summer 2020, presumably in Spain, and has since spread to multiple European countries. The variant was first observed in Spain in June and has been at frequencies above 40% since July. Outside of Spain, the frequency of this variant has increased from very low values prior to 15th July to 40-70% in Switzerland, Ireland, and the United Kingdom in September. It is also prevalent in Norway, Latvia, the Netherlands, and France.”
“It is currently unclear whether this variant is spreading because of a transmission advantage of the virus or whether high incidence in Spain followed by dissemination through tourists is sufficient to explain the rapid rise in multiple countries.”
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.25.20219063v1
first detected:
in northeast Spain : on June 20;
in England on July 18;
in France on August 1;
in Germany on August 17;
in Italy on August 25.
Orban should have closed the borders on August 15.
The September 1 closure was late to stop the second wave in Hungary.
The mutant “initially spread among agricultural workers in Aragon and Catalonia, then moved into the local population, where it was able to travel to the Valencia Region and on to the rest of the
country.
This initial expansion of the 20A.EU1 cluster
via a suspected super-spreading event that spread into the local population and moved across the country may have been critical in increasing the cluster’s prevalence in Spain just before borders re-opened.”
https://www.medrxiv.org/content/10.1101/2020.10.25.20219063v1.full.pdf
The fawning relationship between the recently departed UK Ambassador (Ian Lyndsey) and Fidesz might also be charitably described as “decidedly unfortunate”.
Am deliberately going for British-style understatement here in deference to said H.M.A.
I can’t stand Soros, but I can’t stand being censored either. Competition in schools and train of thought is a good thing. On my website at mediaaccess.hu I’ve collected a number of facts and videos on the Soros plan – it’s evil. Orbán’s is evil! Gyurcsány is evil! Communism is evil! Soros and Orbán were friends and are friends. It’s a big fat show, friends. Soros doesn’t give you money – well he paid Gyurcsány Ferenc too. Kinda like the Rothchilds and Rockefellers – put your bet on more than one marker – guaranteed to win. Ever wonder how much Soros won on the hate Soros campaign? Stop watching the show and look behind the curtains to see how things are pieced together. Speech: “All the world’s a stage”
BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE
Idiot or off the handle?
I wrote to this guy once. I never liked him.
OT:
I have an idea. What about putting Chris Dias, zoli and maybe ccnothing together for an afternoon – and look who survives …
What do you think?
Any ideas who should join them?
Wolfi I suppose they don’t even understand what the other person is saying/writing. One talks about a guy who? he never liked him, the other one talks about Marx without knowing what it is about and the other one knows everything from inside because he knows a mayor. This will be the concentrated BS party of three baby gorillas like trying to pat themselfs on the chest.
Thanks Don and Wolfi. I laughed at your funny, but sadly, also insightful comments about getting Chris and Zoli together. Those guys never make any sense.
Should this rollover-summit be held on the top-side or underneath the planet?
Of course not – in the hollow Earth!
Don’t you know the novel by Jules Verne
“Journey to the Center of the Earth”
They might have wonderful adventures together
Are the avarage joes still happy with O1g’s regime?
Purchasing power decreased by 7.3% this year in Hungary compared to last year, from EUR 7,416 to EUR 6,871, according to GfKʼs latest international study, writes azenpenzem.hu.
https://bbj.hu/economy/purchasing%20power%20down%207.3%20from%202019_191171
Unfortunately, yes, they still love Orban.
My extended family members who have to now buy groceries at Penny Market because even Lidl is too fancy for them are as unwavering Orbanists as ever.
The opposition is completely mute about prices, the HUF falling like the rock against the EUR, jobs and the like.
The gigantic Dunaferr smelter in Dunaujvaros is basically in bankruptcy, I haven’t heard as much as a peep from an opposition politician about it.
I follow many politicians on FB and none of them deal with insane grocery prices or the falling HUF, they deal with rule of law, women’s rights in Poland, Budapest, the Actors’ Academy or whatever but not things about which your average shop clerk in Füzesabony cares.
Since the opposition politicians themselves don’t care about grocery prices (as they just pay whatever the price is), they have jobs until the next elections, etc. they can’t understand the problems of the average joes.
There is no clear opposition narrative about prices and the economy and voters can’t comprehend (anyway massaged) statistics so they are OK with Orban. The attrition of Fidesz voters takes place with glacial speed because the opposition is lazy and mute.
Marty
BS your “none of them deal with insane grocery prices or the falling forint”
Watch ATV or listen to Klubradio where these are discussed almost daily, Ildikó Bangóné was shouting in Parliament last week, Lajos Koros too, even in the sack of potatoes action Jakab stated that Orbàn is reducing people to poverty “so that he can buy the with a sack of potatoes”.
Your negative attitude coupled with a great deal of malice toward the opposition makes one suspicious of your motives.
I am sorry Eva, I don’t agree. These are bread and butter issues that one would expect the Opposition to engage with. Great to have great causes but what for if people can’t put meals on the table? Can Marty not make a point with being accused of betrayal?
That Marty hates the opposition, however, comes out very strongly. Even though he reports from his “point of view”, I find Eva’s objection justified.
Aida, nothing wrong with pointing out that prices are exploding. It is a fact, everybody knows and of course the opposition must react. And they do! Often enough I linked statements when Marty claimed that the opposition would be mute. Today Observer already mentioned the facts. I think nobody would be angry if the opposition would improve – no matter how good or bad their ideas are, improvement is always possible. I am neither talking for Éva nor for others who are suspicious of Marty’s intentions, but in my own opinion and writing myself from rural Hungary (which Marty only knows by the believe and reports of his family as he states) I can assure you he is neither painting a true picture of the opposition nor of Hungary. Things are not that easy or one sided as he declares. In best case he is a defeatist, in worst case …. I leave it to everybody’s imagination.
The trouble is that it is not true that the opposition doesn’t call attention to the very serious inflation of foodstuff. Everyday in parliament and outside of it. Marty is not telling the truth.
I don’t watch TV at all nor do I listen to radio. But the reach of these media (ie. TV and radio to which the opposition has access to) is anyway limited.
But if I (someone who follows the news on the internet closely) don’t see the opposition complaining about prices, but I do see the opposition complaining about Polish abortion rulings, the actors academy, EU funding issues etc. then the opposition is doing something very wrong.
The opposition is improving very slowly (extremely slowly) despite all the economic uncertainty. One can’t blame everything on Fidesz.
My motive is to see them change and change fundamentally before it’s too late (for us who live in Hungary).
It’s like in the Olympic sports: being kind and lovely will not make the kids champions.
The merciless methods of the Chinese or Tamás Széchy (the late “pope of Hungarian swimming training”) are the methods which work.
This is not they way one would treat one’s own children of course, but the opposition people are participating in a contest that is as difficult as the Olympics.
It’s also a fundamental rule of education that expectations must always be set high no matter how disadvantaged the pupil is.
And let me repeat: I support and actively participated in opposition politics, activism etc. (on local level), which is also why I know firsthand of their failures. I have never ever voted for Fidesz.
Only considering the currency …
Tuesday, October 29, 2019 1 EUR = 327.965 HUF
Thursday, October 29, 2020 1 EUR = 367,11 HUF
From 367 HUF to 327 HUF you pay now 40 HUF more or ~ 11% for the Euro – in one year.
OT: Sandor Revesz, a former journalist of now defunct Népszabadsag (the main left-wing daily that was shut down by Fidesz a few years ago) wrote a biography of Istvan Dobi who was essentially the president of Hungary from 1952 to 1967 (he was formally the head of a collective presidium). Dobi’s name is all but forgotten now, only those at least in middle age heard about him while in school. Dobi used to be a Kisgazda, a Smallholder’s Party bigwig, the Smalholders being the – dominant – centre-right party for a brief period just after 1945 before the communists took over. As far as I remember Dobi was seen as a kind of traitor who was coopted by the communists and used him as a figurehead who was known by the rural masses. I haven’t finished the book but I can recommend the book because it shows for example how politics during the Horthy system (intra-war autocracy with limited/managed elections) worked for the opposition parties in rural regions. I am also certain that the SocDems and the Kisgazdas were stronger in the 1920s and 1930s in rural regions than the Hungarian opposition currently is in rural regions (even though the… Read more »
“I am also certain that the SocDems and the Kisgazdas were stronger in the 1920s and 1930s in rural regions than the Hungarian opposition currently”
Not true with respect to the Social Democrats.
They agreed not to [and were not allowed to] organize in rural areas according to December 1921 Bethlen-Peyer agreement.
That’s the thing. Dobi was a SocDem for a while and his chapter was very strong in a village (close to Komárom). Far stronger than anything any current opposition party has even in the biggest towns (or even in Budapest). Crazy but true.
Of course the SocDem later lost its support, they were harassed and then essentially banned, even Dobi changed parties, but the point is that despite all these there were activists, supporters, members in these parties even in a village in a way today the opposition doesn’t have such supporters.
You never explain yourself when you say “extreme right views.” Trump is neither extreme nor far right. Orbán is neither extreme right, but extreme left. I can explain myself when I say these things, but you cannot!! National Socialism is as destructive as Global Socialism! Nazism – it’s very easy to find the facts – is extreme leftism!! Hungary is a democracy – everyone who knows just a smidgen of history will know this. The US founding fathers did everything they could to keep that idea out of the system – the word doesn’t appear in the US Constitution, nor in any state Constitution. NEXT? Anyway, I wrote to that ambassador and read some things that he wrote or articles written about him and I never liked him either. Either Trump doesn’t know the situation here or he’s complacent to it. Trump is a populist but more constitutional than any in my lifetime. You folks need to write to your politicians and remind them about their rolls and tell them what makes a good government. But, you don’t and you won’t because you don’t know these things either. I haven’t heard any of these truths to be self evident, at… Read more »
Pls take your pills or buzz off, wliiya?
You’re becoming tiresome. It doesn’t matter how many times you try to explain that Trump and Orbán belong to the extreme left it doesn’t become true. Moreover, we got your opinion on the matter too many times and if you don’t stop this nonsense, I will blacklist you.
CoViD-19 deaths reported in and around Hungary on October 29, 2020:
Ukraine: 113
Romania 83
Hungary 56
Austria 29
Croatia 18
Slovakia 16
Slovenia 14
Serbia 6
deaths / 1 Million population [in order of last 7-days deaths]
country: Oct.29 [last 7-days Oct.23-29]
Slovenia: 6.73 [39]
Hungary: 5.80 [34]
Romania: 4.32 [31]
Croatia: 4.39 [26]
Ukraine: 2.58 [19]
Slovakia: 2.93 [16]
Austria: 3.22 [13]
Serbia: 0.69 [3]
full graph at https://public.flourish.studio/visualisation/4087308/
PS1: anybody another explanation for the serious discrepancy between cases and deaths in Hungary, than: the actual numbers of Corona cases in Hungary seem seriously underreported?
PS2: anybody knows details about how the Serbian government is handling the pandemic? if their official data is correct [!?!], since mid July Serbia is by far performing the best [first seriously reducing infections and casualties, and then keeping them low]
Re…the ‘Honorable’ David Cornstein, American Ambassador to Hungary Ambassadors are addressed as ‘honorable’ in keeping with the important position of representing one’s country to another. It is a sign of respect for the diplomatic office and for representing ideally those actions which improve and generate movement toward better relations between countries taking in mind the principles one represents as a ‘symbol’ of one’s country he professes to believe in and its ideals. But considering the ‘representation’ it was none other than imbuing the relationship with a descent into lip-homage, kowtowing and brown nosing. Disgusting. As it is he has served his ambassadorship under the auspices of Presidente Donald Trump who perhaps sat once in the Russian Duma taking in breakfast , lunch and dinner in his early real estate days and taking in operations where he has now applied what he learned in building his poisonous and inept administration now with bludgeons. What and who he supported could be sensed in a satiric and acidic fake TIME cover with a Trump having a visage that shows ‘ugly is ugly’. It’s title “Worst.President.Ever“ and showing the admirable qualities of President Trump. And to one sect showing the qualities they abide in… Read more »
Totally OT – but maybe the best news of today:
Thousands of Polish women went to the streets demonstrating against the PISsers’ anti abortion law.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/oct/24/thousands-join-poland-protests-against-strict-abortion-laws
Yes, good news. Thanks for link.
OT
Vaccine
The bold lies continue: according to G.Gulyas there’s enough vaccine and next week more will be distributed. More can be ordered too.
Aunt Cecilia (Müller) on the other hand said that more vaccine is being manufactured (already).
A local officer of Novartis (?) explained that the production of a large batch can take up to six months, the availability of eggs can be a bottle neck – one per shot is needed.
ATV mentioned that 50 000 shots are being sent to Serbia.
Another f..up by this ignorant bunch of low life dumbos and criminals.
1 400 000 shots are enough for everyone – officially still 9 700 000 are living in Hungary!?! Only for true believers of his majesty the godlike dictator?
https://24.hu/kozelet/2020/10/29/influenzaoltas-koronavirus-fluart-waxigrip-patika-import/
Cont.
Gulyás said “1400 000 shots are at our disposal” (rendelkezésünkre áll) whatever this means, since they are not at the people’s disposal. Or known where are they, just as with the masks or the ventilators.
Correction: a local officer of Sanofi explained ….
Headline news and Table 1:
US GDP is up by 33.1% in the 3rd quarter.
Trump: ‘Re-elect me, I am great’
Table 3.
GDP in 10^12 chained (2012) dollars
Q1: 19.0108
Q2: 17.3025
Q3: 18.584
18.584/17.3025 = 1.074064, up by 7.41%
Ihttps://www.bea.gov/sites/default/files/2020-10/gdp3q20_adv.pdf
Q: How did the Trump propaganda get the 33.1%?
A: 1.074064^4 = 1.320824, up by 33.08%
So it would be 33.08% only if this result repeated itself for 3 additional quarters.
Correction:
Q: How did the Trump propaganda get the 33.1%?
A: 1.074064^4 = 1.330824, up by 33.08%
So it would be 33.08% only if this result repeated itself for 4 additional quarters.
3 🙂
US public debt in in 10^12 dollars:
2020.03.31: 23.68687
2020.06.30: 26.47792, up 11.78%
2020.09.30: 26.94539
https://fiscaldata.treasury.gov/datasets/debt-to-the-penny/debt-to-the-penny
2020.09.30 vs 2020.03.31
GDP (first estimate!): down 2.24%
public debt: up 13.76%
The great bubble.
S&P500:
2020.09.30 vs 2020.03.31:
3363 vs 2584.59, up 30.12%
2020.08.31 vs 2020.02.28:
3500.31 vs 2954.22, up 18.49%
Now, reading the latest Fivethirtyeight.com polls, Orban has 9:1 chance of having to work with a new US Ambassador, who Andrew Goodfriend will be compared to as a most benignant uncle. There is no doubt, Polish and Hungarian autocracies are on the radar of a possible and more-and-more likely future Biden government. Orban will have to bring his peacock game to a new level…
Very interesting PISA-based data on Hungarian 15-year olds.
The numbers imply that 95% (!) of the kids reject immigrants.
Which figure is by far the highest of any country measured.
Sad reminder: propaganda works and the Hungarian kids are extremely conformist.
https://m.koloknet.hu/iskola-2/egy-ujabb-negativ-magyar-rekord-a-pisa-adatok-alapjan/
OT Soccer
“Huge accomplishment..” wrote Origo after Hu champion Fradi equalized Dynamo Kiev’s 0:2 lead to a draw in the second half yesterday, in Budapest (for non soccer fans).
After 10 years poring crazy money into “academies” and stadiums (stealing notwithstanding) here is the line up of the HUNGARIAN team:
Blažič
Kovacsevics
Lovrentič
Zubkov
Somalia
Tokmac*
Haister
Haratin
Franck Boli*
Laidouni
Try spot the Hungarian in our great team.
So another case of the Orbàn touch turning everything into something browner and much softer then gold… And what about “the migrants taking our (best paid) jobs”?
apart from OV’s sport virus, I have watched foreign reporters, being flabbergasted by the many and close-to-each-other supporters in the stadium, uttering: “Is there no Corona pandemic in Hungary?”
[…] reader might wonder about my reason for bringing up this old story now. On October 28, I published my translation of Viktor Orbán’s commendation on the occasion of awarding U.S. Ambassador David […]