NEW: My read on what Tucker Carlson’s whitewashing of Viktor Orban portends—and why the future of Trumpism lies in Budapest. nbcnews.com/think/amp/ncna…
The claim that Orban’s Hungary is some bastion of “Western civilization” rests on one thing alone: anti-democratic, ethno-nationalist bigotry—the same building blocks of Trumpism.
One of the underappreciated elements of Orban’s rule is just how much *corruption* has flourished in Budapest in recent years.
Systemic fraud, elite predation, crony capitalism—the kinds of patterns familiar to autocratic regimes elsewhere.
Trumpists and American white nationalists have been lusting after Orban for *years*—with pro-Trump trolls even in Orban’s pocket.
In that sense, Tucker Carlson is nothing new. But Tucker’s visit is Orban’s biggest propaganda coup to date.
+1 The American “nationalist” right infatuation with Orban was already in full-swing by the mid-2010s. (See: the “alt-right” of the era citing Orban over and over.)
All we’ve seen in the past few years is a deepening of a trend already there.
Others have made similar points, but it’s obvious that the future of Trumpism is Orbanism.
Crony capitalism and elite predation, the dismantlement of basic democratic protections, all wrapped in nativism and conspiracy theory, all lurching toward autocracy outright.
One side-note: Orban’s government is still the only one that’s bankrolled right-wing American Twitter trolls.
Shortly after becoming dictator, Napoleon unleashed a torrent of racist policies, not least reimposing human chattel slavery throughout the French Empire (even while completely failing to reconquer Haiti):
For @TheProspect, I wrote about the legacy of Sen. Carl Levin—a man ahead of his time, who could see how kleptocracy would rise, and who helped pass the most important anti-money laundering legislation the U.S. has ever seen. prospect.org/power/the-inve…
One of the most impressive element of Sen. Levin's career was just how much *foresight* he had.
Few politicians had a better grasp on the rising world of offshoring and financial secrecy—and those links to authoritarianism—than Levin.
And Levin knew what to do about it, and about the Americans helping all this dirty money cross international borders.
There's a reason he was one of the first legislators to push for banning anonymous shell companies—all the way back during the George W. Bush administration.
NEW: A series of lawsuits from Russian oligarchs in the UK highlights how easy it is for kleptocratic forces to stifle Western journalists, and anyone trying to shine a light on international money laundering networks. newrepublic.com/article/163131…
The Russian oligarch at the center of the recent efforts to target investigative journalists in the UK, Roman Abramovich, has helped launch what may be the most expensive libel case in British history.
But there's far more at stake than just legal fees.
NEW: The Tom Barrack charges show how wildly successful foreign dictatorships were at secretly swaying the Trump administration—and why so many illicit foreign agents targeted the White House. nbcnews.com/think/opinion/…
Just look at what Tom Barrack—Trump’s close friend, advisor, fundraiser—allegedly did secretly on behalf of the UAE dictatorship:
—Change Trump’s speeches
—Lobby for pro-UAE staffing/policy
—Funnel internal White House discussions to the UAE
—Publicly whitewash the UAE regime
One question: What did Tom Barrack get in return for flipping into a secret foreign agent for the UAE, whispering in Trump’s ear?
One potential answer: Look how much money—$1.5 billion—his private equity firm received from UAE (and Saudi) sources.
Teddy Roosevelt: First president to host a Black man at the White House, yet someone who thought the 15th Amendment was a “mistake” and that 90% of Jim Crow was justified, with Black Americans “altogether inferior to the whites.”
Still strange the US’s crushing of Filipino independence efforts doesn’t have more resonance in 21st century America—everything from widespread use of water-boarding, to efforts to cover up torture reports by Roosevelt’s administration.
Yet another high-level Trump official charged with secretly acting as a foreign lobbyist: justice.gov/opa/pr/former-…
Said it before, but absolutely amazing how the Trump campaign(s) breathed new life into FARA.
Legislation effectively dormant for 75 years—and then Trump came into the picture, and all of his sycophants couldn’t stop themselves whenever a foreign government came knocking.