I have several friends who were born and raised in Hungary, who no longer live there, because of Orban. They're not lefty intellectuals or political activists. They're just intelligent people with families who as one said "don't want to live in a country where the morons are in control." Orban's rule is responsible for a major Hungarian brain drain. My friends are so opposed to what has happened that they have applied for citizenship in the EU countries where they now live; they have no plans on going back.
This is what happens when the right wing takes power: since they are ipso factor braindead morons, that's who ends in running things.
Further proof that Truman was right 74 years ago: "the only 'good Republicans' are pushing up daisies."
Sorry, if this makes me ‘elitist,’ but I too ‘don’t want to live in a country where the morons are in control.’ No point mincing words. It’s looking more and more like that’s the case here in the US. (And, the true elitists are the MAGA minority that think they should be in charge and who will do anything to get power.)
We haven't lost yet. The pendulum swings both ways. It is swinging right now, but the vast majority of us are alarmed and will voice such. Our job now is to get that majority to vote.
Bill, I think you are quite right. We do need to focus and while acknowledging that most if not all of the Republican Party is anti-democratic we need to push back hard. Banning books, banning the truth, lying to the public, supporting the obscene inequality in this country, hypocritical actions criticizing “big government“ turning around and using government to suppress voting rights, punishing even Disneyland, and generally trying to move us to more of an oligarchy than we already are, we cannot and should not shirk from our obligations to prevent our Country from devolving into the country these Republicans are trying to create.
J Horowitz, tell that to the Republicans when they use “big“ government to suppress the vote, ban books, use their megaphone to speak lies like the “big lie”, give the wealthiest people in this country a tax break increasing the deficit, go to Hungary to have their convention and support Orban’s type of government. Orban is the keynote speaker. It’s not too late for you to get tickets to the CPAC convention if you’d like to live under a ruler like Orban. Certainly he does have a face. Unfortunately it’s politically ugly. Our government is not faceless and the Republicans faces I’m not liking so much as they try to push their anti-democratic agenda creating even more of an oligarchy and obscene inequality in our Country. Democrats are not against big corporations but they are for competition in order to keep prices low for consumers and foster innovation. Democrats are not against capitalism but want the government to assure an even playing field for all the participants.You wished me to have a nice day but based on your comments I think that was a bit insincere.
That's pretty simplistic. A partnership between business and government makes sense. There is more to governing than making money. You have a good day as well. Cheers.
Elitist??? Why would anyone see someone who savors democracy as an elitist? We get to choose the neighborhood, city, and country we want to live in based on what we deem to be shared basic principles. Never would I have fathomed that I would I see what is being tossed around here in America in broad daylight! I've been holding on to the notion that "good" and "intelligence" would prevail, but what I am observing is that this country is growing badder and dumber by the day. I feel like I'm fighting to keep my side of the street clean, but if that day comes, we have plans to infiltrate into Canada....
One problem here is that the loudmouths have the MAGAphone and keep using it ad nauseum(sp). there are a lot of caring and intelligent people out there but we have to find our voice and one another. This happened during the Civil Rights Movement, and also during the Viet Nam War. I think we're building a movement but it hasn't emerged just yet. I think the way we write and respond to this column and to each other is helping shape it. I'm a ceramic artist, so I know that you have to start with a lump of clay and then shape it into what you want.
We have our voice, but why do we have to appear so dignified? We need louder mouths. It's just going so slow...and I know how fast a ceramics wheel spins....
Just a cavil “ipso facto brain dead morons” could justly apply to many followers but leaves out the deadly truth-Trump was shrewd. So dumb he ran casinos into the ground, but shrewd. And some of his advisors were smart (evil geniuses) and shrewd. And they instill voter discipline from radio waves and pulpits and those GOTV tactics WORK. Those American citizens vote. Often in shrewdly-manipulated, gerrymandered districts. And that’s how we got here. The Trump cultists take pride in ignorance and like to say (read in un-Eastern-Seaboard accent of choice:) “I may be stupid, but I ain’t dumb.”
I would have agreed but recently had this conversation with someone else, looked up “sociopathy” and found this: “In a nutshell, people with sociopathy may have little empathy and a habit of rationalizing their actions. But they do know the difference between right and wrong.
Psychopathy, according to Hare, involves no sense of morality or empathy.” I know the DSM latest edition doesn’t contain either term and uses the “AntiSocial Personality Disorder” to cover all so it’s somewhat theoretical, but do you believe the state in under Hitler was able to propagandize away a moral sense in the entire populace or do you think those people retained a moral compass and remained reachable, but the resistance just wasn’t effective enough? I honestly think that’s what we need to be figuring out in the US in 2022. Who will say out loud “Have you no shame, sir?” In Congress and in our media--and are people (Dittoheads &c) still reachable? Obvs Professor HCR thinks so, and that’s why she never rests. Me, I’m doubting Thomas but do have a shred of hope.
Fear is a powerful motivator. My grandfather’s writings on the rise of Nazism in Germany spoke a lot about the rising danger of speaking out. There came a tipping point, and moral people were silenced, or they were imprisoned (and we know what that looked like), or they were executed.
We still can speak out, we still can vote, and we must, while we still can.
That is exactly right. The moral people went underground. My neighbor's father was a Lutheran minister in Germany at the time and my neighbor, who was a young child, remembers people coming and going through their house. They were Jews being smuggled out of Germany into Switzerland. Her father (and perhaps her entire family) could have been killed for doing that.
I’d certainly appreciate knowing your grandfather’s name since I can’t guess from your initials. Like most of us here, have read a bit (someone’s recommendation about Anne Appelbaum below was a good one, I thought (Twilight of Democracy good popular history) but always appreciate recommendations.
I'm about 150 pages into Tim Snyder's book (from 2010) "Bloodlands". A compelling read, but I'm getting more depressed by the day. I fear that violence and bloodlust are wired into the human race, at least the male half.
By the way, in regard to KR's comment (below), my late wife lived through the Nazi occupation of Holland as a child during WWII. Our grandchildren called us Oma and Opa. It's a gift.
These were just private recollections in an autobiography written for the family, badly translated by my dad from German. Nothing published. I treasure it, but only because my beloved Opa wrote it. It’s rough reading because the translation is so bad.
I wish so much I had been able to read them while he was alive. So many questions! And nowhere to get answers anymore. But yes, so compelling. My grandfather only learned in 1938 that his parents were Jews, who had fled from Lithuania/Belarus because they were socialists. They hadn’t registered as Jews, because they were atheist socialists. That part was dramatic for sure! They arrived in Switzerland, where my grandfather was born, but settled in Germany, where my grandfather’s siblings were born. They all survived the war in Switzerland, while my grandparents and father emigrated under the Swiss quota. Most of my great grandfather’s family, who were in Belarus, did not survive, although there were others who emigrated to the US in the 20s, and who were my grandparents’ sponsors here. I’d love to know more than just those bare bones.
You may doubt, but you are a warrioress and I doubt your brain takes a rest often from the conflagration burning in the lost soul of the Republican Party. Here’s their tent, Laura…..🌋
Good point. Just like hard core Nazis in 1945 who fantasized that Hitler had a miracle weapon as the Reich became a smoldering ruin over run by hundreds of thousands of Allie’s forces.
Right now their tribal beliefs are completely entangled with their identities, changing those beliefs would require a huge sea change rippling through everything that touches their lives. So sadly, they are entrenched. The only thing I think that would ever reach them is some kind of direct primal threat, i.e. when the MAGAs need NEW scapegoats and come for THEM! Nonetheless, I think there is still a big, lazy "middle" in this country that will briefly look up from their phones this fall - and make a choice in favor of Democracy!!
We need doubt, but more than that, we need to "stand up and be counted," as my mother used to say. We need to take action, not just swear at the radio as I did when Lindsay Grahm was giving Judge Jackson the fifth degree.
Pushing up daisies? Never heard that, but I’m going to use it, a lot. Your friends’ experience illustrates why democracy is superior to authoritarianism, even when the democracy is highly imperfect. One of the best arguments against immigration is never raised: the effect of the drain of the most intelligent and talented upon the nation that they leave. Making that case would reveal almost all of those who oppose immigration for their bigotry.
The Republicans embrace Myth because the myth of patriarchal, Christian American exceptionalism gives them a smokescreen behind which they hide their treachery. The Democrats embrace Facts and the Rule of Law. Jettison the myths and embrace the facts.
I "don't want to live in a country where the morons are in control," either, but at my age and with my health conditions and all my "stuff," I simply cannot pick up and go anywhere else. This is not how I envisioned my "golden years." Not. At. All.
After my parents passed away and I was in a job in NYC I was going nowhere in after 18 years (though it was wonderful working for my bosses, who remained friends with me all their remaining lives), I decided I had enough snow and ice and was debating between Atlanta and Tucson and chose metro Atlanta because of the better job opportunities at the time and because Atlanta has four seasons (and short winters) and because I could buy my own house and have a garden.
As it turned out, I did get a job, but three weeks after I moved into my house, the company "downsized," and I was left unemployed, with a brand-new mortgage. I had been doing part-time oral history interview transcription while in NY and decided to make it a full-time profession. I created my company, found my first clients online, and the rest came via word of mouth and through professional organizations I joined. It was a rewarding, educational experience for twenty-four years, working from my home office doing the transcriptions and editing/proofreading. Then came COVID, at which point my clients' programs shut down. I decided then to call it quits, myself, and am enjoying retirement and my garden (which has been approved by Georgia Audubon as a certified wildlife sanctuary), though I still do pro bono proofreading for several nonprofits.
BTW, When the heart button doesn’t turn red, refresh your page and it should then show it’s red. If not, just click on it again, and it should turn red.
Wow, Mim, I’ve been your fan and kindred, grammatical spirit…but wow, touch envious of that dreamy, home-based career you made for yourself! Thrilled to hear you’re enjoying your wildlife sanctuary in retirement.
Thanks so much, Ashley. My property is simply a ranch-style home on one-third of an acre, but I have many trees and shrubs and native (and not native) plants and a simple pan of water for the birds and critters. I used to have a little patio fountain, but it broke and I haven't yet replaced it. I use no herbicides or pesticides and try to buy plants grown without neonicotinoids that kill the very pollinators attracted to them by what the big-box stores sell. I get my plants at native plant sales or trusted online sources.
Ranch style homes are so important-it's easier to transition when you become less mobile. My mom, who wasn't an architect, designed our spacious one in the 60's and it had 44" wide halls which can make managing mobility easier if one needs a wheelchair. I didn't keep it after she died but did rent one for 15 years then bought one where I've lived for the past 22 years and I had a ramp installed out back. (She trained me up right LOL!)
TC, Who is the American Expert on Hungarian history? Someone who has really detailed Orban, his rise to power, his tactics to subvert free press and democratic institutions etc.
He is a liberal. He created the Open Society Foundation which poured many millions into supporting progressive movements in countries behind the iron curtain. He has recently funded the political action committee to support liberal district attorneys around the country. Larry Krasner won the office in Philadelphia with his support, and has exonerated 28 wrongfully arrested long-term convicts.
Looking for the Dr, Richardson of Hungarian history. We could learn how, and what Orbon did over the course of time to learn how to prevent it happening here.
Check out the Know Your Enemy podcast from 10/25/21. Entitled The American Right's Hungary Hearts with Lauren Stokes and John Ganz. I found it very informative
The one thing that keeps the score in positive numbers for this country is that it officially aspires to be better, and has done so on occasion (with lots of effort on the part of the successful side), with only having to have a civil war once.
Well, since most MAGA are of European descent, why don’t we just start shouting at them to “Go back where you came from”? Let them move to Orban’s Hungary.
I believe this first of three WaPo articles was posted yesterday. I think reading them today in light of today's LFAA is important. All three links are unlocked for non-subscribers. I've shared them plus today's LFAA on my FB page as well. I hope my posts with pertinent excerpts will be shared widely. We are teetering on a razor's edge.
Yes, they are and the party of death. It's too bad about Hungary for many reasons and it's really telling that CPAC is there. We visited Budapest several years ago when Orban wasn't in power and enjoyed it.
I can remember the Hungarian Revolution. And the tens of thousands of Hungarians who were able to cross into Austria and freedom. And the Olympics in Sydney during the fighting, when the Hungarian water polo team took on the USSR. The pool ran red with blood--it was the only place where the Hungarians could be on equal terms (I almost wrote "equal footing," but that wouldn't be right) with the Soviets.
If you go to Paris and walk down the Boul' Mich from the Luxembourg past the Ecole des Mines, you can still see the bullet marks from the fighting when the Resistants rose against the Germans in August 1944, as the city was liberated. They have preserved portions of the façade with the pockmarks there.
Been to Prague twice. The first time was just before the Russians rolled in to suppress the Czechs. They were so excited and then the tanks arrived. We left the day before. Not many tourists that trip. The last trip was the same one as Budapest. Very busy with tourists. Our guide arranged for a Lebanese meal near the embassies. It was fabulous. I love Prague and Budapest as cities.
Indeed it is! And I can tell you that many "lost" Canadians in the U.S. are busily seeking to obtain Canadian Certificates of Citizenship for their U.S. born children who qualify. All of my "lost" Canadian current clients have said the same thing: they do not want to be trapped in the U.S. if TFG is elected again. They have also expressed an intense anxiety over mid-terms.
The GOP/Tucker Carlson "replacement theory" is just doublespeak for the strategy of white, heterosexual, self-righteous men stealing the fruits created through the efforts of non-white men & women. First they murdered and looted the Native Americans who honored a peaceful and cooperative life, then they kidnapped and enslaved Black people from other lands and considered them to be mere property, then they murdered them at will if they dared to create a good life for themselves, then they made sure that women who dared to leave the home that was meant to cater to their white male whims would only earn a fraction of what those white males earned. Empowered by those successes, they shamelessly pretend that anyone not like them is trying to steal their rightful places. Makes me sick to my stomach. Literally sick to my stomach.
Taking in your literal words, Janet Sobel, this liberal elderly woman, reports progressively worsening constant nausea even to the point of literal vomiting the end of April. I am so grateful for Heather Cox Richardson's keen mind and this forum. Today's Letter is brilliant. She zeroes right into the historical context and present sleights of hand of the once respected Republican party. What's going on in Hungary (size of our state of Michigan), Orban, and the "right wing" (sounds so innocuous) here in the US is frightful - scary beyond words and my comprehension. I, too, am sick to my stomach and very angry but now no longer feeling powerless. I have a voice. Remembering my own liberation from my white middle class proper New England patriarchal family where fathers knew best, belting out Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman Hear Me Roar..." sometime in 1977 in my kitchen while my five kids slept upstairs, their father living elsewhere.
Thank you, Christine, I appreciate your feedback. I'm a newcomer to Substack. As an octogenarian who grew up in a deadly silent "nuclear" family, conversations other than "Please pass the oleo" and others in that vein did not exist. I'm happy to read helpful definitions to expressions I might not readily know. Wasn't certain that "barn burner" was a "good" expression or not.
Want to clarify to those responding to my comment on Heather Cox Richardson's Substack Newsletter, that I am not a newcomer to her Letters to an American. I find it fascinating that she writes from Round Pond, Maine. I lived there for 4 years in early 1990s next door to a Poland family. Not sure what exact relationship Buddy Poland is to that Poland family. A close friend of mine posted one of Buddy's photographs on facebook and I was blown away when I started reading Heather's Letters and watching her Tues/Thurs politics/history "classes." High school and college history teachers/professors (all men from football coaches to Shakespeare scholars) until Heather, I got all meaningful history/politics learning from reading historical fiction because I wanted to know more than a linear summation of the battle details of what happened in the past. I wanted to know what people's lives were like.
I have several friends who were born and raised in Hungary, who no longer live there, because of Orban. They're not lefty intellectuals or political activists. They're just intelligent people with families who as one said "don't want to live in a country where the morons are in control." Orban's rule is responsible for a major Hungarian brain drain. My friends are so opposed to what has happened that they have applied for citizenship in the EU countries where they now live; they have no plans on going back.
This is what happens when the right wing takes power: since they are ipso factor braindead morons, that's who ends in running things.
Further proof that Truman was right 74 years ago: "the only 'good Republicans' are pushing up daisies."
The. Republicans. Are. America's. Enemy.
Sorry, if this makes me ‘elitist,’ but I too ‘don’t want to live in a country where the morons are in control.’ No point mincing words. It’s looking more and more like that’s the case here in the US. (And, the true elitists are the MAGA minority that think they should be in charge and who will do anything to get power.)
We haven't lost yet. The pendulum swings both ways. It is swinging right now, but the vast majority of us are alarmed and will voice such. Our job now is to get that majority to vote.
Bill, I think you are quite right. We do need to focus and while acknowledging that most if not all of the Republican Party is anti-democratic we need to push back hard. Banning books, banning the truth, lying to the public, supporting the obscene inequality in this country, hypocritical actions criticizing “big government“ turning around and using government to suppress voting rights, punishing even Disneyland, and generally trying to move us to more of an oligarchy than we already are, we cannot and should not shirk from our obligations to prevent our Country from devolving into the country these Republicans are trying to create.
Absolutely. None of this makes sense and I do not want to have madmen at the helm of our country.
Big government bad: we don't want faceless bureaucrats running our lives. Big business good: Amazon, Facebook, Walmart,... . Have a nice day!
J Horowitz, tell that to the Republicans when they use “big“ government to suppress the vote, ban books, use their megaphone to speak lies like the “big lie”, give the wealthiest people in this country a tax break increasing the deficit, go to Hungary to have their convention and support Orban’s type of government. Orban is the keynote speaker. It’s not too late for you to get tickets to the CPAC convention if you’d like to live under a ruler like Orban. Certainly he does have a face. Unfortunately it’s politically ugly. Our government is not faceless and the Republicans faces I’m not liking so much as they try to push their anti-democratic agenda creating even more of an oligarchy and obscene inequality in our Country. Democrats are not against big corporations but they are for competition in order to keep prices low for consumers and foster innovation. Democrats are not against capitalism but want the government to assure an even playing field for all the participants.You wished me to have a nice day but based on your comments I think that was a bit insincere.
Relax. I was being sarcastic.
That's pretty simplistic. A partnership between business and government makes sense. There is more to governing than making money. You have a good day as well. Cheers.
And so many just don't give a damn and won't until it is too late!
And that makes me so sad! I am glad I am elderly but still fighting for my nine-year-old granddaughter and her friends!
I'm right there with you!!! Keep it up.
Elitist??? Why would anyone see someone who savors democracy as an elitist? We get to choose the neighborhood, city, and country we want to live in based on what we deem to be shared basic principles. Never would I have fathomed that I would I see what is being tossed around here in America in broad daylight! I've been holding on to the notion that "good" and "intelligence" would prevail, but what I am observing is that this country is growing badder and dumber by the day. I feel like I'm fighting to keep my side of the street clean, but if that day comes, we have plans to infiltrate into Canada....
One problem here is that the loudmouths have the MAGAphone and keep using it ad nauseum(sp). there are a lot of caring and intelligent people out there but we have to find our voice and one another. This happened during the Civil Rights Movement, and also during the Viet Nam War. I think we're building a movement but it hasn't emerged just yet. I think the way we write and respond to this column and to each other is helping shape it. I'm a ceramic artist, so I know that you have to start with a lump of clay and then shape it into what you want.
We have our voice, but why do we have to appear so dignified? We need louder mouths. It's just going so slow...and I know how fast a ceramics wheel spins....
Agree! (but "nauseam") :)
Just a cavil “ipso facto brain dead morons” could justly apply to many followers but leaves out the deadly truth-Trump was shrewd. So dumb he ran casinos into the ground, but shrewd. And some of his advisors were smart (evil geniuses) and shrewd. And they instill voter discipline from radio waves and pulpits and those GOTV tactics WORK. Those American citizens vote. Often in shrewdly-manipulated, gerrymandered districts. And that’s how we got here. The Trump cultists take pride in ignorance and like to say (read in un-Eastern-Seaboard accent of choice:) “I may be stupid, but I ain’t dumb.”
Shrewd amoral sociopaths. The characteristics of those who “followed orders” in Nazi Germany
I would have agreed but recently had this conversation with someone else, looked up “sociopathy” and found this: “In a nutshell, people with sociopathy may have little empathy and a habit of rationalizing their actions. But they do know the difference between right and wrong.
Psychopathy, according to Hare, involves no sense of morality or empathy.” I know the DSM latest edition doesn’t contain either term and uses the “AntiSocial Personality Disorder” to cover all so it’s somewhat theoretical, but do you believe the state in under Hitler was able to propagandize away a moral sense in the entire populace or do you think those people retained a moral compass and remained reachable, but the resistance just wasn’t effective enough? I honestly think that’s what we need to be figuring out in the US in 2022. Who will say out loud “Have you no shame, sir?” In Congress and in our media--and are people (Dittoheads &c) still reachable? Obvs Professor HCR thinks so, and that’s why she never rests. Me, I’m doubting Thomas but do have a shred of hope.
Fear is a powerful motivator. My grandfather’s writings on the rise of Nazism in Germany spoke a lot about the rising danger of speaking out. There came a tipping point, and moral people were silenced, or they were imprisoned (and we know what that looked like), or they were executed.
We still can speak out, we still can vote, and we must, while we still can.
Your "while we still can" ending gave me a heart attack....
Yes. Alarming. More people should be alarmed.
That is exactly right. The moral people went underground. My neighbor's father was a Lutheran minister in Germany at the time and my neighbor, who was a young child, remembers people coming and going through their house. They were Jews being smuggled out of Germany into Switzerland. Her father (and perhaps her entire family) could have been killed for doing that.
I’d certainly appreciate knowing your grandfather’s name since I can’t guess from your initials. Like most of us here, have read a bit (someone’s recommendation about Anne Appelbaum below was a good one, I thought (Twilight of Democracy good popular history) but always appreciate recommendations.
I'm about 150 pages into Tim Snyder's book (from 2010) "Bloodlands". A compelling read, but I'm getting more depressed by the day. I fear that violence and bloodlust are wired into the human race, at least the male half.
By the way, in regard to KR's comment (below), my late wife lived through the Nazi occupation of Holland as a child during WWII. Our grandchildren called us Oma and Opa. It's a gift.
These were just private recollections in an autobiography written for the family, badly translated by my dad from German. Nothing published. I treasure it, but only because my beloved Opa wrote it. It’s rough reading because the translation is so bad.
So true, KR. And wow, your grandfather’s writings must be chillingly powerful!
I wish so much I had been able to read them while he was alive. So many questions! And nowhere to get answers anymore. But yes, so compelling. My grandfather only learned in 1938 that his parents were Jews, who had fled from Lithuania/Belarus because they were socialists. They hadn’t registered as Jews, because they were atheist socialists. That part was dramatic for sure! They arrived in Switzerland, where my grandfather was born, but settled in Germany, where my grandfather’s siblings were born. They all survived the war in Switzerland, while my grandparents and father emigrated under the Swiss quota. Most of my great grandfather’s family, who were in Belarus, did not survive, although there were others who emigrated to the US in the 20s, and who were my grandparents’ sponsors here. I’d love to know more than just those bare bones.
You may doubt, but you are a warrioress and I doubt your brain takes a rest often from the conflagration burning in the lost soul of the Republican Party. Here’s their tent, Laura…..🌋
They will become a wasted volcano.
Haha just give me a tent peg and call me Ja’el wife of Heber 😂
I’m a ordinary citizen who is not a psychopath. They are not reachable. People who believe that may be in for a rude awakening.
Good point. Just like hard core Nazis in 1945 who fantasized that Hitler had a miracle weapon as the Reich became a smoldering ruin over run by hundreds of thousands of Allie’s forces.
Right now their tribal beliefs are completely entangled with their identities, changing those beliefs would require a huge sea change rippling through everything that touches their lives. So sadly, they are entrenched. The only thing I think that would ever reach them is some kind of direct primal threat, i.e. when the MAGAs need NEW scapegoats and come for THEM! Nonetheless, I think there is still a big, lazy "middle" in this country that will briefly look up from their phones this fall - and make a choice in favor of Democracy!!
It’s ambiguous. Perhaps socially induced psychopathy is a fitting term.
I like that because it accounts for historical models like Salem...I just don’t want my last words to be “more weight.”
We need doubt, but more than that, we need to "stand up and be counted," as my mother used to say. We need to take action, not just swear at the radio as I did when Lindsay Grahm was giving Judge Jackson the fifth degree.
Pushing up daisies? Never heard that, but I’m going to use it, a lot. Your friends’ experience illustrates why democracy is superior to authoritarianism, even when the democracy is highly imperfect. One of the best arguments against immigration is never raised: the effect of the drain of the most intelligent and talented upon the nation that they leave. Making that case would reveal almost all of those who oppose immigration for their bigotry.
B-I-N-G-O, jon. Salud.
Pushing up daisies? very old - listen to the last verse of "Minnie the Moocher".
Friends of mine, same story. They are still mourning their beloved Hungary.
The Republicans embrace Myth because the myth of patriarchal, Christian American exceptionalism gives them a smokescreen behind which they hide their treachery. The Democrats embrace Facts and the Rule of Law. Jettison the myths and embrace the facts.
I "don't want to live in a country where the morons are in control," either, but at my age and with my health conditions and all my "stuff," I simply cannot pick up and go anywhere else. This is not how I envisioned my "golden years." Not. At. All.
How did a NYer get to GA to begin with? Asking for a friend. :-)
After my parents passed away and I was in a job in NYC I was going nowhere in after 18 years (though it was wonderful working for my bosses, who remained friends with me all their remaining lives), I decided I had enough snow and ice and was debating between Atlanta and Tucson and chose metro Atlanta because of the better job opportunities at the time and because Atlanta has four seasons (and short winters) and because I could buy my own house and have a garden.
As it turned out, I did get a job, but three weeks after I moved into my house, the company "downsized," and I was left unemployed, with a brand-new mortgage. I had been doing part-time oral history interview transcription while in NY and decided to make it a full-time profession. I created my company, found my first clients online, and the rest came via word of mouth and through professional organizations I joined. It was a rewarding, educational experience for twenty-four years, working from my home office doing the transcriptions and editing/proofreading. Then came COVID, at which point my clients' programs shut down. I decided then to call it quits, myself, and am enjoying retirement and my garden (which has been approved by Georgia Audubon as a certified wildlife sanctuary), though I still do pro bono proofreading for several nonprofits.
That was probably more than you expected to hear.
More than expected, but entirely interesting.
Thanks.
Love your story, Mim.
So do I. My "heart" isn't working well this morning.
Thanks, Anne-Louise.
BTW, When the heart button doesn’t turn red, refresh your page and it should then show it’s red. If not, just click on it again, and it should turn red.
Many thanks, Christine.
Wow, Mim, I’ve been your fan and kindred, grammatical spirit…but wow, touch envious of that dreamy, home-based career you made for yourself! Thrilled to hear you’re enjoying your wildlife sanctuary in retirement.
Thanks so much, Ashley. My property is simply a ranch-style home on one-third of an acre, but I have many trees and shrubs and native (and not native) plants and a simple pan of water for the birds and critters. I used to have a little patio fountain, but it broke and I haven't yet replaced it. I use no herbicides or pesticides and try to buy plants grown without neonicotinoids that kill the very pollinators attracted to them by what the big-box stores sell. I get my plants at native plant sales or trusted online sources.
Ranch style homes are so important-it's easier to transition when you become less mobile. My mom, who wasn't an architect, designed our spacious one in the 60's and it had 44" wide halls which can make managing mobility easier if one needs a wheelchair. I didn't keep it after she died but did rent one for 15 years then bought one where I've lived for the past 22 years and I had a ramp installed out back. (She trained me up right LOL!)
TC, Who is the American Expert on Hungarian history? Someone who has really detailed Orban, his rise to power, his tactics to subvert free press and democratic institutions etc.
The Hungarian-born Holocaust survivor, George Soros, is an important writer/thinker on all things Hungarian....
And the Republicans hate him! To them he is Satan! These are words from very "the right Christians". They worship the Koch bothers as their Saviors!
Actually, Trump is Satan. Are there any of the 10 Commandments that he hasn't broken?
I don't know. Most of my knowledge about him is anecdotal. He actually started out as a liberal.
Ruth Ben-Ghiat https://lucid.substack.com/ and Timothy Snyder https://substack.com/profile/30618158-timothy-snyder
Both recommended to me by this group.
I follow both as well, and Robert Hubbell and Robert Reich.
They wanted power???? We had 4 Republicans running for sheriff. No Democrats were on the primary ballot! That scares the hell out of me!
Paul Lendvai is a very good resource. I think Madeleine Albright’s book “Fascism” is also.
He is a liberal. He created the Open Society Foundation which poured many millions into supporting progressive movements in countries behind the iron curtain. He has recently funded the political action committee to support liberal district attorneys around the country. Larry Krasner won the office in Philadelphia with his support, and has exonerated 28 wrongfully arrested long-term convicts.
Zbigniew Brzezinski ...?
Anne Applebaum is a reliable source for information about Eastern European politics.
https://www.anneapplebaum.com/
And Timothy Synder as well
Historian Timothy Snyder
I don’t think Dr Snyder has a detailed book just focusing on Hungry. He does explain many Euro countries, but looking at just Hungry.
Don't you hate autocorrect sometimes? 🤣
Send him a tweet or comment via substack.
Looking for the Dr, Richardson of Hungarian history. We could learn how, and what Orbon did over the course of time to learn how to prevent it happening here.
Paul Lendvai and Madeleine Albright
Check out the Know Your Enemy podcast from 10/25/21. Entitled The American Right's Hungary Hearts with Lauren Stokes and John Ganz. I found it very informative
🙏
Sounds a lot like the Russian/Ukraine standoff. Orban is a lot like the South American dictators eg Brazil
Did I make the right choice in choosing this country?
The one thing that keeps the score in positive numbers for this country is that it officially aspires to be better, and has done so on occasion (with lots of effort on the part of the successful side), with only having to have a civil war once.
Yes! (For us, anyway.)
YES!
Salud, Sister.
I hope so! Please keep participating!
Well, since most MAGA are of European descent, why don’t we just start shouting at them to “Go back where you came from”? Let them move to Orban’s Hungary.
I believe this first of three WaPo articles was posted yesterday. I think reading them today in light of today's LFAA is important. All three links are unlocked for non-subscribers. I've shared them plus today's LFAA on my FB page as well. I hope my posts with pertinent excerpts will be shared widely. We are teetering on a razor's edge.
https://wapo.st/3yTPLFw
https://wapo.st/3PARxS3
https://wapo.st/3NqFTaf
Indeed they are.
Yes, they are and the party of death. It's too bad about Hungary for many reasons and it's really telling that CPAC is there. We visited Budapest several years ago when Orban wasn't in power and enjoyed it.
I've always wanted to go to Budapest just to eat. But not until the fascist is out.
I remember bullet holes in walls from the Hungarian Revolution and a boat trip on the Danube. Maybe we had dinner on the boat.
I can remember the Hungarian Revolution. And the tens of thousands of Hungarians who were able to cross into Austria and freedom. And the Olympics in Sydney during the fighting, when the Hungarian water polo team took on the USSR. The pool ran red with blood--it was the only place where the Hungarians could be on equal terms (I almost wrote "equal footing," but that wouldn't be right) with the Soviets.
The 1956 Olympics were in Melbourne (and so was I) - the Sydney Olympics were in 2000. Yes - there was blood in the water.
Sigh. Pardon me while I wipe the egg from my face.
I don't remember much about the Hungarian Revolution. We just checked our pics from Budapest and no pics of restaurants.
Plenty of restaurants - but they aren't as obvious, and often in a cellar or upstairs.
I was about to say the same thing (I first visited in the 1990s and the bullet holes were still there. Likewise in Prague.)
If you go to Paris and walk down the Boul' Mich from the Luxembourg past the Ecole des Mines, you can still see the bullet marks from the fighting when the Resistants rose against the Germans in August 1944, as the city was liberated. They have preserved portions of the façade with the pockmarks there.
Thanks, Jon. I’ll be there in just over a week, must try to see!
Been to Prague twice. The first time was just before the Russians rolled in to suppress the Czechs. They were so excited and then the tanks arrived. We left the day before. Not many tourists that trip. The last trip was the same one as Budapest. Very busy with tourists. Our guide arranged for a Lebanese meal near the embassies. It was fabulous. I love Prague and Budapest as cities.
Love this. Thanks.
👌🏼
Where can we go to escape as those in Hungary have done?
I’m staying and fighting.
My folks came from Ireland, mid 1800’s. Looks like a good place to me.
Pity about "Give me your poor, your tired, etc" - couple of nice little Statues of Liberty copies in Paris.
I saw that back in 1975 on my trip to Europe! We ended our tour in Paris!
France, now that Macron has been re-elected. Or perhaps Canada.
I believe Canada would be closer!
Indeed it is! And I can tell you that many "lost" Canadians in the U.S. are busily seeking to obtain Canadian Certificates of Citizenship for their U.S. born children who qualify. All of my "lost" Canadian current clients have said the same thing: they do not want to be trapped in the U.S. if TFG is elected again. They have also expressed an intense anxiety over mid-terms.
Yes, but the weather's not as good, nor is the food.
You don't cook? :)
The GOP/Tucker Carlson "replacement theory" is just doublespeak for the strategy of white, heterosexual, self-righteous men stealing the fruits created through the efforts of non-white men & women. First they murdered and looted the Native Americans who honored a peaceful and cooperative life, then they kidnapped and enslaved Black people from other lands and considered them to be mere property, then they murdered them at will if they dared to create a good life for themselves, then they made sure that women who dared to leave the home that was meant to cater to their white male whims would only earn a fraction of what those white males earned. Empowered by those successes, they shamelessly pretend that anyone not like them is trying to steal their rightful places. Makes me sick to my stomach. Literally sick to my stomach.
Taking in your literal words, Janet Sobel, this liberal elderly woman, reports progressively worsening constant nausea even to the point of literal vomiting the end of April. I am so grateful for Heather Cox Richardson's keen mind and this forum. Today's Letter is brilliant. She zeroes right into the historical context and present sleights of hand of the once respected Republican party. What's going on in Hungary (size of our state of Michigan), Orban, and the "right wing" (sounds so innocuous) here in the US is frightful - scary beyond words and my comprehension. I, too, am sick to my stomach and very angry but now no longer feeling powerless. I have a voice. Remembering my own liberation from my white middle class proper New England patriarchal family where fathers knew best, belting out Helen Reddy's "I Am Woman Hear Me Roar..." sometime in 1977 in my kitchen while my five kids slept upstairs, their father living elsewhere.
Your last sentence is a barn burner, Marcia. A compliment.
Salud! United 🗽
Thank you, Christine, I appreciate your feedback. I'm a newcomer to Substack. As an octogenarian who grew up in a deadly silent "nuclear" family, conversations other than "Please pass the oleo" and others in that vein did not exist. I'm happy to read helpful definitions to expressions I might not readily know. Wasn't certain that "barn burner" was a "good" expression or not.
Want to clarify to those responding to my comment on Heather Cox Richardson's Substack Newsletter, that I am not a newcomer to her Letters to an American. I find it fascinating that she writes from Round Pond, Maine. I lived there for 4 years in early 1990s next door to a Poland family. Not sure what exact relationship Buddy Poland is to that Poland family. A close friend of mine posted one of Buddy's photographs on facebook and I was blown away when I started reading Heather's Letters and watching her Tues/Thurs politics/history "classes." High school and college history teachers/professors (all men from football coaches to Shakespeare scholars) until Heather, I got all meaningful history/politics learning from reading historical fiction because I wanted to know more than a linear summation of the battle details of what happened in the past. I wanted to know what people's lives were like.