WHAT DO YOU KNOW ABOUT HUNGARIAN DICTATOR VIKTOR ORBAN?

Viktor Orban, Hungary's prime minister, yesterday met Donald Trump at Mar-a-Lago. Trump praised Orban as a great dictator, or something like that. Orban said Trump indicated he won't give a penny to Ukraine. Orban is not scheduled to meet with anyone in the Biden administration. They are both poised to join the president's for life club, now led by Vladimir Putin, Jinping Xi and Kim Jong Un. Actually, Viktor already is at their level.

On 5August2019, a year before the previous U.S. presidential election, it was scarily reported on how Trump might be scrutinizing Orban's playbook.

Trump borrowed his immigration policy from Orban, who fanned anti-migrant sentiment to gain political power in 2010 to dismantle Hungarian democracy.
Immigration is just a Trump's first step to establish an autocracy.
Orban built a fence on the border with Serbia in 2015. Donald has his wall.
Orban used bogus corruption charges to sideline political opponents. So did Trump, who purged 17,000 public officials.

In 2022, EuroNews reported:

In 2012 Orban reworked the constitution.
By 2018 he he shut down the independent media, only allowing friendly newspapers to print.

In December 2023, Orban's allies met privately with U.S. Republicans and the conservative Heritage Foundation in DC to advocate for an end to American military support for Ukraine. Accordingly:

Since assuming power in 2010, Viktor Orbán and his Fidesz party have systematically dismantled the pillars of liberal democracy in Hungary, steering the nation toward what Orbán himself proudly labels as an “illiberal state.” This dangerous shift poses not just a domestic crisis for Hungary but also a significant challenge to the European Union, NATO, and, crucially, U.S. national security interests, especially in the context of the ongoing Russian war against Ukraine. Indeed, Orbán’s alignment with populist-nationalist leaders such as Robert Fico in Slovakia and Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey forms an illiberal triad that directly challenges the trans-Atlantic security order.

Also.

Orbán’s Hungary is a textbook case of democratic backsliding, characterized by state capture of public institutions; assaults on minority rights, especially migrant, Roma, and LGBTQ rights; aggressive nationalist rhetoric; and attacks on the rule of law.

To join NATO, the vote needs to be unanimous. Hungary refused to cooperate until on 23February2024 Orban met with Sweden's Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson and agreed to cooperate. The issue was on hold for a year and a half. Sweden is now the 32nd member of NATO.

So why did Donald Trump meet with Viktor Orban? The Donald wants to join the Presidents for Life Club. All he needs to do is beat Joe Biden on November 5.

Yesterday The Hill featured Ty Cobb, one of Donald Trump's White House attorneys. He said...

...that the facts are terrible in his multiple legal cases, and that it's probably been very difficult for him to navigate the various battles.
To quote.

One, the facts are terrible. His conduct is reprehensible, and he’s the subject of 91 felony counts, four separate indictments and multiple civil cases. He’s lost almost half a billion dollars,” Cobb said. “So, it’s not like this is a smooth gliding ship.

Pretty simple: if he loses to Biden, he's going to jail.
Watch Cobb on CNN saying that Trump poses the greatest threat to democracy we've ever seen.

About the Academy Award ceremony last night:

Oppenheimer dominated, with eight awards. Barbie got one, original song.
John Cena presented the award for best costume design, seemingly nude. Well, he was actually wearing something called a modesty garment.

Towards the very end, Jimmy Kimmel read from his smart phone criticism about how terrible he did as moderator...from The Donald himself, where Kimmel ended with, isn't it past your jail time? Worth a watch.
Here are Jodie Foster with wife Alexandra Hedison. Jodie is wearing a satin Loewe gown.

Finally, the latest in fashion. Ariana Grande supposedly wore a Giambattista Valli Haute Couture gown, but it really looked like a large pink comforter to me.

A NEXT COVID SUBVARIANT?

By now most know that the Omicron BA.5 subvariant has become the dominant infectious agent, now accounting for more than 80% of all COVID-19 cases. Very few are aware that a new one, BA.4.6, is sneaking in and steadily rising, now accounting for 13% of sequenced samples . However, as BA.4.6 has emerged from BA.4, while there is uncertainty, the scientific sense is that the latest bivalent booster targeting BA.4 and BA.5 should also be effective for this next threat. One concern is that Evusheld--the only monoclonal antibody authorized for COVID prevention in immunocompromised individuals--is not effective against BA.4.6. Here is a reference as to what this means. A series of two injections is involved. Evusheld was developed by British-Swedish company AstraZeneca, and is a t ixagevimab co-packaged with cilgavimab . More recently, Los Angeles County reported on subvariant BA.2.75.2 . which Tony Fauci termed suspicious and troublesome. This strain has also been spreading in

Part 3: OUR NEXT AROUND THE WORLD ODYSSEY

Before I get into my third, and final, part of this cruise series, let me start with some more newsworthy topics. Thursday was my pandemic day for years. Thus, every so often I return to bring you up to date on the latest developments. All these subvariants derived from that Omicron variant, and each quickly became dominant, with slightly different symptoms. One of these will shock you. There has been a significant decline in the lost of taste and smell. From two-thirds of early patients to now only 10-20% show these symptoms. JN.1, now the dominant subvariant, results in mostly mild symptoms. However, once JN.1 infects some, there seem to be longer-lasting symptoms. Clearly, the latest booster helps prevent contracting Covid. A competing subvariant, BA.2.86, also known as Pirola , a month ago made a run, but JN.1 prevailed. No variant in particular, but research has shown that some of you will begin to lose hair for several months. This is caused by stress more than anythi

HONOLULU TO SEATTLE

The story of the day is Hurricane Milton, now a Category 4 at 145 MPH, with a track that has moved further south and the eye projected to make landfall just south of Sarasota. Good news for Tampa, which is 73 miles north. Milton will crash into Florida as a Category 4, and is huge, so a lot of problems can still be expected in Tampa Bay with storm surge. If the eye had crossed into the state just north of Tampa, the damage would have been catastrophic. Milton is a fast-moving storm, currently at 17 MPH, so as bad as the rainfall will be over Florida, again, a blessing. The eye will make landfall around 10PM EDT today, and will move into the Atlantic Ocean north of Palm Bay Thursday morning. My first trip to Seattle was in June of 1962 just after I graduated from Stanford University. Caught a bus. Was called the Century 21 Exposition . Also the Seattle World's Fair. 10 million joined me on a six-month run. My first. These are held every five years, and there have only been

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