(Pictured above) -- Not Putin, but Hungary's authoritarian PM Viktor Orban.

Conservative and liberal opposition parties coalesced to try and defeat Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Sunday’s parliamentary elections. But on a day in which Russian military atrocities on the citizens of Bucha, Ukraine, were being broadcast around the world, Orban – an authoritarian ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin -- took 53% of the vote to win his fourth term, NPR’s Morning Edition reports.

That since failed conservative-liberal coalition formed an “unusually united opposition,” according to The New York Times, though Orban’s coalition with Russia’s Putin clearly is more effective. Orban has “cast himself as a neutral peacemaker who does not want to fan the war by sending weapons to Ukraine or to hurt Hungarian interests by imposing a ban on Russian oil imports.”

Like the U.S., Hungary’s population is split politically and culturally between urban (Budapest) and rural voters, and there was hope among those moderate conservatives and liberals in the anti-Orban coalition that, at the very least, a sufficient number of city votes would go the anti-authoritarian way and deprive Orban’s Fidesz party of two-thirds’ control of Hungary’s Parliament. 

That didn’t happen, either. Fidesz won 135 seats to the opposition’s 56 seats in Parliament, says NPR, which also notes that more than 90% of Hungary’s legacy media are controlled by the Fidesz government.

It’s no Poland: Contrast Hungary’s position in Russia’s war against Ukraine with that of Poland, which similarly is a former Soviet-bloc country now a part of the European Union and NATO, with majority nationalist, authoritarian leadership in its government for more than a decade. Poland is fervently anti-Russian, however, and it has taken in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees while sending military and humanitarian aid across its eastern border. 

[According to official estimates, Hungary, population 9.6 million, had 7,749 Ukrainian refugees who have applied for temporary protected status as of March 27, while Poland, population 38 million, has taken in more than 2 million Ukrainian refugees in the first three weeks of the war.]

In his victory speech Sunday, Orban said this, according to Reporting Democracy via Balkan Insight:

“The victory will be remembered for the rest of our lives because so many people ganged up on us, including the left at home, the international left everywhere, the bureaucrats in Brussels, all the funds and organizations of the ruling empire, the foreign media, and in the end even the Ukrainian president.”

Sound familiar?: America’s punditocracy is still assessing our former president’s standing with the GOP, so it remains to be seen whether anti-Trump Republican groups in this country will need to coalesce with Democrats in 2024 and stanch the authoritarian movement here. 

…meanwhile…

Trump endorses Palin, natch … Of the 51 candidates running to replace Alaska’s sole member in the House of Representatives, Republican Don Young, who died in March, the one Donald J. Trump chose to endorse is Sarah Palin, the 2008 running mate to presidential candidate John McCain. 

“Sarah shocked many when she endorsed me very early in 2016, and we won big,” said ex-President Trump’s statement, in part. “Now it’s my turn!”

In his book published in 2018, the late Sen. McCain (R-AZ) wrote that he regretted choosing Palin as his running mate instead of former Sen. Joe Lieberman. [Lieberman was a Democrat from Connecticut who ran as Al Gore’s running mate in the 2000 presidential election, and became an independent in 2006.]

If Palin wins the late Rep. Young’s seat, she will serve only the remainder of the current term ending next January – unless she runs for, and wins, re-election this November. But with a rift growing between Ron DeSantis and Trump over what Trump sees as the Florida governor trying to grab the MAGA spotlight, Palin must now be considered on the short list of candidates to become his running mate for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination. 

They can see Russia from their house: Trump in late February said the “genius” Vladimir Putin was “very savvy” for invading two separatist regions of Ukraine. Palin in 2008 said, responding to a question about her foreign affairs acumen; “As Putin rears his head and comes into the airspace of the United States of America, where – where do they go? It’s Alaska. It’s just right over the border.” Something to consider if this MAGA 2024 “dream” ticket comes to pass.

•••

Meanwhile, in disturbing health news. . . Here’s something you’d rather not read,  yet it is good to know about. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “If radioactive iodine is released into the air after a radiological or nuclear event it can be breathed into the lungs. In most cases, once radioactive iodine has entered the body, the thyroid gland quickly absorbs it. After it has been absorbed into the thyroid gland, radioactive iodine can then cause thyroid gland injury.”

So potassium iodide (“KI”), a stable, non-radioactive form, is taken in order to protect the thyroid from the radioactive version to prevent damage in the form of cancer.

Romania will start distributing iodine tablets to all people under 40 in the country starting in mid-April, according to Politico. Romania shares a border with Ukraine.

This distribution isn’t unique to Romania, as Finland, Bulgaria, Belgium and other European countries distribute the pills to their populations.

Yes, the fear of radiation is real.

--Edited by Todd Lassa, Gary S. Vasilash and Charles Dervarics

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FRI 4/1/22

No April Fools … Personally, we never made plans for an April Fools story today. But we were struck by public radio’s Marketplace noting it would forego its annual tradition this year in light of current global events and the prevalence of conspiracy theories and other outrageous made-up news that far too many people are consuming from social media and various corners of the Internet. 

According to The History Channel’s This Day in History English pranksters first popularized April Fools in 1700. After 322 years, is it time for a burial?

•••

Red Cross to Mariupol, Ukrainian ‘copters to Russia … The International Committee of the Red Cross is attempting to open a “safe passage operation” in Mariupol, Ukraine, The Washington Post reports, a day after the Kremlin declared a humanitarian cease-fire in the southeastern city most heavily hit in the war. It was not clear whether the ICRC would be able to enter the city, where about 150,000 Ukrainian civilians remain trapped, according to the BBC. 

Meanwhile: Two Ukrainian helicopters bombed an oil depot across the border in Belgorod, according to Russian officials. Ukraine has not confirmed the report. While the Kremlin says the attack is “not conducive to peace talks” planned to continue online Friday, the attack stands out for Ukraine’s ability to invade Russian airspace, with ‘copters, no less.

Known Unknowns: Russia puts the number of its own military personnel killed in its war against Ukraine at approximately 1,300, Dmitry Polyansky, deputy ambassador to the United Nations, told the BBC Friday. Ukraine officials say it’s more like 17,000 and NATO says the number is even higher. Earlier this week Polyansky claimed there is no “war” in Ukraine, so let’s say those additional 15,700+ Russian soldiers were killed in the “special military operation.” 

•••

Gas Prices to Fall? … That’s a pun. President Biden announced the largest-ever release of the U.S. Strategic Petroleum Reserve Thursday of up to 1 million barrels per day for up to six weeks, saying, per The Hill, “Putin’s price hike is hitting Americans at the pump.”

Of course, all that oil needs to get transferred to refineries before it gets to your gas tank. It won’t happen in time for family vacation season, when a higher cost “summer blend” has hiked prices at the pump for decades. Biden calls the SPR release “a wartime bridge into the fall.” Not bad timing for Democratic mid-term candidates, at least, though 1 million barrels per day is not really much, so the effect will be mostly symbolic.

Known Knowns: Renewable energy has been on the cusp of reducing our reliance on oil from Russia, Venezuela and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries since the Ford administration, and if the hype over automakers’ emerging shift to electric vehicles (though requiring rare metals for batteries from some of these, and other troublesome countries) becomes reality in this decade, perhaps we can phase out the SPR. Biggest impediment? Big Oil itself.

--Edited by Todd Lassa

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THU 3/31/22

In Ukraine … As Russia allegedly pulls back from attacks on Kyiv and Cheherniv, Ukraine is bracing itself for a fresh assault on the breakaway Dunbar region to the east, despite further peace talks scheduled for Friday via video-link, Ukrainian President Vlodymyr Zelniskyy warns (per The Guardian). 

Meanwhile, up to 45 buses were reported headed to extra-hard hit Mariupol to evacuate citizens. 

Unknown Unknowns: The Pentagon says Vladimir Putin’s military advisors are telling him that Russia is having much more military success in Ukraine than it is, heavily downplaying Ukrainian resistance, The Washington Post reports. Assessment is Putin’s advisors may be afraid to deliver bad news to their dictator. This is not as reassuring as it may sound; U.S. military experts fear the deliberate propaganda aimed at Putin could undermine negotiations underway between Ukraine and Russia.

The Trump Factor: It always looms, doesn’t it? Earlier this week Donald J. Trump raised questions based on unsubstantiated claims about Hunter Biden’s former business dealings in Russia on a program called the Just the News TV and said “I think Putin would know the answer to that. I think he should release (evidence).” This is as Russian troops are shelling hospitals and schools and trying to close off humanitarian cooridors.

White House spokesperson Kate Bedingfield responded Wednesday; “What kind of American, let alone an ex-president, thinks that this is the right time to enter into a scheme with Vladimir Putin and brag about his connections to Vladimir Putin? ... There is only one, and it is Donald Trump.”

Wonder what the purveyor of The Big Lie might tell Putin how the war in Ukraine is progressing?

•••

Meanwhile, at Justice … As some anxious Democrats and never-Trump Republicans worry about deliberate progress in its investigation, the Justice Department has expanded its probe into the January 6 Capitol insurrection to examine preparation and financing for Donald J. Trump’s rally preceding the attack, The Washington Post reports. Good news perhaps, for DOJ, is this appears to fall largely in the time before seven hours, 37 minutes of communication with ex-President Trump went missing.

•••

Meanwhile, where the truth is what one wants to make it. . . That Madison Cawthorn (R) succeeded Mark Meadows in the North Carolina 11^th congressional district in 2020 is perhaps not entirely surprising. (Slightly more surprising is that for the purpose of voting in that district, Meadows’ address in the 11^th is attached to a mobile home.)

Cawthorn, 26, had attended Patrick Henry College in fall 2016 . . . but dropped out because his grades were, apparently, below average. Cawthorn had been injured in a vehicle accident in 2014 when he was a passenger in an SUV on its way back from spring break in Florida. He was partially paralyzed by the accident. And it seemed to have had an effect on his college undertaking as, according to Wikipedia, he said in a deposition, "You know, suffering from a brain injury after the accident definitely I think it slowed my brain down a little bit. Made me less intelligent. And the pain also made reading and studying very difficult."

Of course he was elected to Congress.

Cawthorn said in an interview in the Warrior Poet Society podcast that he was invited to orgies and drug use among his fellow Republicans in Washington.

That, it seems, is the proverbial bridge too far for those for whom truth is fairly flexible, as House Minority leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) took him to task.

Axios reports that McCarthy said in an interview:

• "It's just frustrating. There's no evidence behind his statements. And when I sit down with him ... I told him you can't make statements like that, as a member of Congress, that affects everybody else and the country as a whole."
• "In the interview, he claims he watched people do cocaine. Then when he comes in he tells me, he says he thinks he saw maybe a staffer in a parking garage from 100 yards away.”
• "I just told him he's lost my trust, he's gonna have to earn it back, and I laid out everything I find is unbecoming. And, you can't just say, 'You can't do this again.' I mean, he's, he's got a lot of members very upset."

In an environment that has been characteristic of the Republican Party since at least 2016, when blatant lies can be told only to be walked back, it isn’t entirely surprising that Cawthorn made things up.

What if he had said the same things about being aware of Democrats doing those things? Would it even have been questioned by McCarthy, or simply amplified?

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

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WED 3/30/22

GOP Support for Brown Jackson – Susan Collins of Maine has told The New York Times she will vote to confirm federal Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court. This makes Collins the first, and potentially only Republican senator to support Brown Jackson to replace the retiring Justice Stephen Breyer at the end of the current term, and virtually assures President Biden's choice will take the seat. 

Meanwhile: But Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) still has his 2024 presidential run sound bites from grilling Brown Jackson over her sentencing record on child pornography cases and on her alleged position on Critical Race Theory taught in grade schools – we’ll repeat it again; CRT is not taught below college level.

•••

Dismal Numbers – 1.) Russian troops have forcibly deported more than 20,000 Ukrainians to Russia in Vladimir Putin’s “special military operation,” Mariupol city council members say (per NPR) and, 2.) More than 4 million Ukrainians, about one-tenth its prewar population, have fled their country as refugees (also NPR). 

The 4-million-plus consists mostly of women and children, as most Ukrainian men are now part of the country’s military, pushing back Russian troops. Britain’s Defense Ministry says “heavy losses” are forcing Russian forces back into Russia and Belarus. 

Meanwhile: Ukraine officials doubt Russia’s promises made in cease fire talks held in Turkey earlier this week that it will “drastically reduce” attacks on Kyiv and Chernihiv, The Washington Post reports. Both cities were struck overnight Tuesday, and the belief is now that Russia made the promise in order to buy time to rotate its troops.

•••

Two Years Late? – The White House has just launched covid.gov, “a new one-stop shop website for vaccination tests, treatments, masks, and the latest COVID-19 information.” It took us two attempts to successfully find it – in the first, we were directed to covid.gov.pk, a Pakistan government site that beat the U.S. site to the Web.

Meanwhile: The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Tuesday that people age 50 and older are now eligible for a second booster shot of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine, beginning today, The Washington Post reports. 

•••

Meanwhile, in the world of every-day Americans -- In January 2021 the Gallup Live Evaluation Index hit 59.2%, a 14-year high measuring those people who consider themselves to be “thriving” as compared with “struggling” or “suffering.” Another way of looking at it is as a measure of stress: those who are striving feel less of it.

The other shoe drops: The latest Index has the number at 53.25, which is the lowest since it hit the high. Seems like inflation is causing a deflation in the level of thriving.

The Gallup pollsters looked at the breakdown of responses along political lines. Back in October 2020, not surprisingly, the percent of Republicans thriving was 69.9%. The number has decreased, going to 64.7% in June 2021, 58.1% in December 2021, but then up a bit to 60.25% in February 2022.

The Dems back in October 2020 were at 42.4% (perhaps not feeling so positive about Biden’s chances), then by June 2021 the number was up to 58.1%. However, there has been a decline since then, to 55.3% in December 2021 and 53.3% in February 2022.

How did this happen? Seems somewhat surprising that the Republicans are thriving more than the Democrats.

Slight solace. Gallup shows that since 2008 the measure hit the low mark of 46.8% twice: In November 2008, when the Dow was at its low point during the financial crisis, and in April 2020, when U.S. unemployment claims hit 30 million. 

So the latest figure is 6.45 points higher than those lows.

•••

Correction: 4-1/2 Minutes Short – We shorted the blank portion of President Nixon’s White House phone tapes turned over in connection with Watergate, in our item about President Trump’s missing January 6, 2021, communications Tuesday. In the case of Richard Nixon and Watergate, 18 and ½ minutes were missing, four-and-a-half minutes longer than we credited to Nixon’s personal secretary, Rose Mary Woods, but still more than 439 minutes short of the length of missing communications from and to Donald J. Trump during the middle of the Big Lie-triggered insurrection on the Capitol. We regret the mistake.

--Edited by Todd Lassa and Gary S. Vasilash

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TUE 3/29/22

Biden Won’t Back Down – President Biden says he is not taking back his comments in Warsaw last weekend that “for God’s sake, this man,” Russian President Vladimir Putin, “cannot remain in power.” … 

“I’m not walking anything back,” Biden said as he released his Fiscal Year 2023 federal budget Monday.  “But I wasn’t then, nor am I now, articulating a policy change.” (Per The Guardian.)

Democratic political consultant and strategist to the 1992 Clinton-Gore campaign, Paul Begala, likened Biden’s “for God’s sake” ad-lib, on NPR’s Morning Edition, to President Ronald Reagan calling the Soviet Union “the evil empire.”

Meanwhile: Negotiators from Kyiv and Moscow continue to meet in Istanbul to try and reach a ceasefire. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has offered “neutral status”, meaning he will not seek NATO membership, if Putin removes his troops from the country.

Breaking Tuesday: As Ukraine outlined its peace proposals in Turkey, Russia said it will “drastically reduce” its “activity” in areas around Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and Chernihiv, “to increase mutual trust and create the necessary conditions for further negotiations,” said Russian Deputy Defense Minister Alexander Fomin (per The Washington Post).

•••

About Biden’s Budget – White House budget requests, at best, serve as starting points for what the president’s party in Congress want for the coming fiscal year. For the record, Biden’s $5.8-trillion request includes more money for affordable housing and local police funding while – here’s the controversial part – proposing a minimum 20% income tax on billionaires. Although Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) is on record as opposing such taxes on the rich, The Hill says at the very least Biden will use this as a political cudgel for the 2022 midterms and possibly the 2024 presidential election.

Republicans will have a hard time campaigning against taxing billionaires, The Hill posits, citing a ProPublica story last June that several of the richest people in the U.S. pay little or no taxes, including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Tesla and SpaceX’s Elon Musk, Meta’s Mark Zuckerberg and Fox News’/Succession inspiration Rupert Murdoch. 

The White House claims the president’s budget request would cut the deficit by more than $1 trillion over the next decade and no one earning less than $400,000 per year will pay a penny more in taxes. Biden also requests $773 billion for the Department of Defense for FY23.

•••

‘Yuge’ Next to Watergate’s 14-Minute ‘Gap’ – President Trump’s White House records handed over to the House Select Committee investigating the January 6 Capitol insurrection are missing seven-hours, 37-minutes of communications, according to documents obtained by The Washington Post and CBS News. Bob Woodward and Robert Costa report the House panel is “investigating whether it has the full record” as turned over by the National Archives earlier this year, or whether Trump communicated from 11:17 a.m. to 6:54 p.m. that day using his aides’ phones and/or personal “burner” phones, people familiar with the probe told Woodcosta.

Our Reference: “Fourteen-minute gap” refers to a blank spot in the Watergate tapes recorded by Richard M. Nixon’s secretary, Rose Mary Woods. Those tapes nevertheless contributed to the president’s eventual resignation ahead of a probable bi-partisan impeachment.

Attempted Coup News You Can Use: U.S. District Judge David O. Carter on Monday said Donald J. Trump “more likely than not” committed federal crimes in trying to obstruct the congressional count of electoral votes January 6, 2021 (WaPo), which is seen as putting more pressure on the Justice Department to investigate the 45^th president. 

Meanwhile: The House January 6 panel referred to the DOJ contempt charges against former Trump aides Peter Navarro (trade policy) and Dan Scavino (communications) for refusing to testify over their alleged plan to overturn the November 2020 election. Former White House advisor, and current Trump son-in-law Jared Kushner is scheduled Thursday to testify before the 1/6 committee, which may now call on Ginni Thomas, wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, over her texts exchanged between the election and the insurgency with then-White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows.

--Compiled by Todd Lassa

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