March is always somewhat of a silly month.  I was born in March, so there you go!  This year the weather has been ridiculous.  March is when people are seriously sick of winter.  This year March started out bad and it is ending badly.  By March 7 there were already 18 states recording record low temperatures for March.  In some cases those records went back to 1872.  Now it is March 25 and once again we are seeing record lows.  Boston is expected to drop down to 26 degrees which would break a record set back in 1888.  What happened to the ”in like a lion out like a lamb theory?”

In addition, this may not even be the last storm of the year.  What’s up with that?  I must admit it does make living here in Northern California look like a wise decision.  Winter basically phoned it in this year.  Our weather people get hysterical over the slim chance of rain.  Even clouds generate excitement.  Earlier this year there was a forecast for a couple of snowflakes.  The grandkids heard the breathless prediction of snow, so they got up early to take advantage.  It was about 40 degrees with no snow in sight.  So, our winter lasted about 15 minutes between 2:15 and 2:30 a.m.

This is not all good, because we are seriously short of water.  But I have to admit, few people here would swap weather with Michigan.  Just saying!

We should have expected this when Obama announced his plan to focus on combating global warming during the State of the Union address:

http://www.salon.com/2014/01/29/obama_during_state_of_the_union_climate_change_is_a_fact/

“We have to act with more urgency, because a changing climate is already harming western communities struggling with drought, and coastal cities dealing with floods.”

Obama really nailed that one.  We are now on record for having the coldest winter in over 100 years:

http://stevengoddard.wordpress.com/2014/03/25/coldest-october-march-in-the-us-in-102-years/

Sometimes I wonder if God is just a little annoyed at the arrogance of people who think they can actually control our weather.   Of course the global warming people think that cold weather is caused by increased temperatures.  But then they believe a lot of other silly nonsense too!

In addition, the NCAA basketball tournament is just plain weird.  The Russians are invading Crimea and there is the mystery of flight MH370.  In this day and age how on earth do we lose an airliner?  If aliens were secretly visiting the planet and they watched the news broadcasts about flight MH370 they would probably write the entire planet off as hopelessly delusional.  In the meantime our President showed up in Europe with about 900 people in his entourage.  That wasn’t nearly enough to give him the courage to stand up to Vladimir Putin.  Obama was so anxious to prove Mitt Romney wrong that he tried to dismiss Russia as a “regional power.”  Putin is sending in Special Forces and tanks and Obama is fighting back with insults.  I am sure Putin is cringing in fear.

Enough already.  I am personally boycotting the rest of March and setting the calendar ahead to April.  April showers bring May flowers, except in California where it doesn’t actually rain in April.

TDM

This is a brief follow-up to my previous post.  I obviously do not know what happened to Malaysia Arline Flight 370.  Neither, apparently, does anyone else.  There are a lot of talking heads on TV telling about how sinister it was for someone, presumably the co-pilot, to plot a course in the computer for a change in heading without discussing this with air traffic control.  One problem is that the facts, including the timeline of events, keeps changing.  Another is that all of the experts start with the assumption that the pilots were aware of a serious problem.  Did anyone consider the possiblity that the pilots thought they were dealing with something minor, not worth reporting, and didn’t realize they had a serious problem until it was too late?

There are a lot of electrical appliances on an airliner that have nothing to do with the control system of the airliner.  I suspect most of us can remember some electrical appliance starting to smell like smoke.  There is not necessarily any significant fire or even flame.  I personally have been on commercial airliners where someone smelled smoke.  In one case it was a faulty coffee pot. In another case it was a faulty video projector.

In both cases the pilot did the same thing.  Someone reported smoke.  The stewardess reported this to the pilot.  He turned the plane over to the co-pilot and came back to investigate.  When he figured out the problem, he made sure it was fixed and returned to the cockpit.  I doubt that either pilot reported this to air traffic control.  But I would not be surprised if one or both of the pilots had asked the co-pilot to plot a course to the nearest alternative airport, as a precaution.  Is this really that far fetched?

If a pilot thought he had a minor problem, not impacting the operating system of the aircraft couldn’t that also explain the sequence of events?

This reminds me of a funny story.  A woman, well-known for her great cooking skills, was teaching her new daughter-in-law how to cook a roast.  Before putting the roast in the oven she cut about a ½ inch slice off each end.  The new daughter-in-law asked her why she did that.  The woman said:  “I’m not sure, but my mother always did that, so I just copied her.”  So, she called her mother and said:  “mom…why do you always cut off each end of the roast before putting it in the oven.”  Her mom said:  “I don’t know.  my mother always did that so I copied her.”  So someone called Grandmother and asked her about this.  “Grandma, why did you always cut off each end of the roast before putting it in the oven?”  Grandma replied:  “because my pan was too small.”  Sometimes the obvious is really obvious if you ask the right questions.

TDM

The Malaysia Airline Flight 370 has now reached epic conspiracy theory status.  Authorities are searching an area the size of the United States.  Some theories have this plane flown to a secret airstrip where terrorists can use it as some super weapon.  I even heard one report that Israel was practicing air defense against such an attack, just in case.  I obviously have no more information than anyone else, but this did remind me of a couple of personal experiences.

As a combat crew member I was on several aircraft that experienced fires and on two planes that suffered an explosive decompression.  Because of those experiences, some of the things described in the media were consistent with my personal experience.

The only thing we know for sure is that some electrical components, such as a transponder, started to fail prior to the last word from the pilot.  If there was an electrical fire, it is possible that some of these failures happened without the pilots being aware that it was happening.  By the time they did know there was a fire, they may have lost all ability to communicate with anyone.

If there was a fire, the pilot would almost certain program the flight computer to take the plane to the nearest emergency airfield.  There was a report on the news today that the new route took the airplane directly over a 13,000 ft. runway that would definitely serve as an appropriate alternate.   So, the turn of the plane would be entirely consistent with the pilot reversing course and seeking an emergency landing field.

If there was a fire and the location cannot be reached by fire extinguishers a pilot might very well decide to take the airplane to maximum altitude to try and starve the fire of oxygen.  There are reports that this aircraft climbed to 45,000 ft., above the service ceiling of the airplane.  That maneuver would make sense if the pilot was trying to put out a fire.  I have been on a plane when this exact maneuver was used by the pilot to put out an electrical fire.

If at the time the aircraft reached 45,000 ft. there was a failure in the pressurization system the pilot would put the plane into a steep dive to try and get back to a survivable altitude. Keep in mind that 45,000 ft.  Is above the service limit for this aircraft.   There is one report that the plane descended from 45,000 ft. to 5,000 ft. in about a minute.  I have been on aircraft that did exactly that as the result of an explosive decompression.  We were flying at 40,000 ft. in a combat zone when our plane suffered an explosive decompression.  Since this was a military aircraft we were all wearing helmets with oxygen masks attached and we were trained at pressure breathing.  That meant that the pilot had a little more time to get the plane down to a safe altitude than a civilian aircraft.  Even so, we went in a steep dive, in both cases, because the pilot wanted to get us down to a safe altitude.  If there was a decompression at 45,000 ft. it would make sense for the pilot to want to get down to a lower altitude as soon as possible.  A plane in a controlled dive can go a lot faster than a falling object.

Apparently then the plane leveled off at 23,000 ft. and flew on.  If that route had been pre-programmed into the computer this also makes sense.  That reminded me of the Paine Stewart plane.  That crew suffered a decompression and the pilot and crew all died.  But the plane flew on for hours eventually crashing after it ran out of fuel.

I hesitated to mention my theory, in view of all the expert opinions, until I read the following article in wired.com:

http://www.wired.com/autopia/2014/03/mh370-electrical-fire/

It turns out that I was not the only one who thought about this.  Obviously, Chris Goodfellow has done a lot more research and is a lot more qualified than me.  I don’t know if he is right or not.  But I do know that all of the conspiracy theories require a ton of incredible coordination and miraculous piloting skills. Sometimes, what is obviously true is obviously true.

TDM

I do not think there will be a war over the Ukraine.  Russia does not need to start a war to win.  Russia is allegedly massing troops at the Ukrainian border.  Does anyone doubt that Vladimir Putin is capable of ordering them into action?  The threat alone is probably enough to seal the deal.  The United States, on the other hand, has attacked with an arrogant speech by John Kerry.

This, of course, is the same John Kerry who gave nine reasons the United States should attack Syria:

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/aug/30/john-kerry-statement-us-intervention-syria

“So the primary question is really no longer, what we know. The question is what are we — we collectively — what are we in the world going to do about it.”

“It is directly related to our credibility and whether countries still believe the United States when it says something.  They are watching to see if Syria can get away with it, because then maybe they too can put the world at greater risk.”

“And it matters to who we are.  And it matters to leadership and to our credibility in the world.  My friends, it matters here if nothing is done.  It matters if the world speaks out in condemnation and then nothing happens.”

Kerry sounded real tough, until the part where he started dithering.  By the end of the speech Kerry was telling the world that Barack Obama was firmly committed to indecision.  .

“We also know that we have a president that does what he says that he will do.  And he has said, very clearly, that whatever decision he makes in Syria it will bear no resemblance to Afghanistan, Iraq or even Libya.  It will not involve any boots on the ground.  It will not be open ended.  And it will not assume responsibility for a civil war that is already well underway.

The president has been clear:  Any action that he might decide to take will be limited and tailored response to ensure that, a despot’s brutal and flagrant use of chemical weapons is held accountable.  And, ultimately, ultimately we are committed – – we remain committed, we believe it’s – – the primary objective is to have a diplomatic process that can resolve this though negotiation, because we know there is no ultimate military solution.

This is pure insanity.  After telling the world why action is required we then explain why action won’t work and we outline all the various actions we won’t take.

Suppose there is a bad guy posed outside your house, with a gun, who threatens to come in and shoot you if you do not give him money.  You call the police and they advise you that what the man is doing is wrong, but they don’t actually have anyone available to provide assistance.  They offer to talk to the guy to try and convince him to leave you alone.  Obviously, the only smart move is to give this guy what he wants and “hope” he moves on to another victim.  Sadly, this is probably how the people in Ukraine view the situation.  Who can blame them?  If you were in the Ukraine would you have faith in the United States under the leadership of Barack Obama?

This is beyond embarrassing, it is dangerous.  I am fairly sure that Putin does not want military action.  But, if he believes that Obama is this weak, he may make a mistake that requires even Obama to grow a spine.

TDM

The IRS scandal has the potential to be very serious for President Obama.  Although the main stream media has ignored this story, it is not going to go away.  Here is what we already know that is being ignored by the main stream media.

We know exactly who ordered the IRS to target conservatives.  They did it publicly.  This is well documented.  President Obama rebuked the Supreme Court with regard to the Citizens United vs. Federal Election Commission during a State of the Union Speech.  Obama was outraged that corporations were allowed to spend money expressing a political opinion.

Then top Democrats like Senator Max Baucus, Chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said that the IRS should target conservative groups:

http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/brian-walsh/2013/05/14/senate-democrats-pushed-for-irs-tea-party-snooping-before-criticizing-it

Several other top Democratic Senators joined in the chorus.  There is no mystery as to how this happened; it is all on the public record.

When the story first broke about the IRS targeting the Tea Party top Senate Democrats professed outrage, until they realized that the IRS was doing exactly what they wanted.  Now those top Democrats are strangely silent.  The main stream media apparently thinks this story doesn’t matter unless we find an e-mail where President Obama personally ordered Lois Lerner to do the dirty deed.

The real story at the hearing in Washington was the staged event by Elijah Cummings specifically designed to distract Chairman Issa from pursuing this story.  The same clowns who consistently launch false accusations of racism against the Tea Party are now pulling the race card on Darrell Issa.  It is ridiculous.

It is important to understand that this is an act of desperation.  They are desperately trying to distract people from this story because this story really matters.  I don’t believe it will work, but Darrell Issa really needs to up his game.  Now we learned that the DOJ interviewed Lois Lerner and she willingly talked to them.

http://nation.foxnews.com/2014/03/07/former-irs-official-lerner-gave-private-interview-doj-pleaded-5th-public

Republicans now have a clear cut case for demanding a select committee and a special prosecutor.  Even in the DOJ did everything right, there is a clear conflict of interest that justifies turning over the investigation to an independent party.    But Republicans need a more skilled spokesperson than Darrell Issa.  He has been unable to shed the label of Political hack.  I would suggest Trey Gowdy, because he is a skilled prosecutor and he is far more capable of laying out a compelling legal argument that would be difficult for anyone to ignore.

This will happen, at some point.  The question is how long will Republicans ignore the obvious and continue to be dominated by a slow Lerner?

TDM

There are signs that the tonight show is not getting the ratings that NBC expected.  The show started with Michelle Obama showing up and even participating in skits.  Obviously the folks at NBC live in a dream world of their own creation where Michelle Obama is the most worshiped woman in the history of the world.  In the real world, not so much.  I am sure at least some people were disgusted by the Obama worship segments.  I, for one, am boycotting the Tonight show for exactly that reason.  My guess is that I am not alone.  (Of course in my opinion, there has been no good late night show since Johnny Carson signed off.)

Now NBC is trying to intimidate Hollywood celebrities by threatening to ban them from the Tonight show if they dare appear on CBS or ABC.

http://www.tmz.com/2014/03/06/jimmy-fallon-nbc-jimmy-kimmel-live-tonight-show/

I doubt that this will work.  Celebrities don’t like to be told what to do by anyone.  They only like lecturing everyone else.  This TMZ article raves about how the Tonight show draws more than twice the viewership of Jimmy Kummel Live.  They omit the part where Jimmy Kummel Live has increased viewership by about 23% since Fallon took over and the Tonight show ratings are definitely starting to slip.

It looks like NBC just can’t help itself.  MSNBC   stands for Mind-numbingly Stupid Nonsense Broadcast Constantly.   I am not offended by the bias on MSNBC; I have come to expect that from the main stream media.  I am just appalled by the stupidity.  There is a video clip of Rachel Maddow trying to blame the Ukraine crisis on George W. Bush invading Iraq.  That is utter nonsense.

Perhaps Jimmy Fallon will wake up and smell the roses.  He is a talented guy and he can be very funny.  But if he continues trying to be the media outreach for the Democratic Party I think we just may see Fallon on hard times.

TDM

Vladimir Putin may have already won the battle for Crimea, without firing a shot.  Unless someone attacks his troops, there will be no bloodshed.  There will also be no democracy.  The government of Crimea will do whatever Putin wants and he will call it democracy.   If it just ended there it might not be that bad.  But it won’t end there.  He will now start looking at the Ukraine.  This is a different kind of war.  It is not the bloody tank invasion mowing down protestors in Hungary.  This is the rapid movement of highly armed special forces to take over key positions.  It is conquering by the mere threat of violence.  When you combine this with the recruitment of top officials sympathetic to Russia and enormous economic pressure the result is a perfect storm.  It would be insane for Crimea to rely on the United States for support in dealing with Russia.

Ronald Reagan defeated the Soviet Union with his economic strategy, not his military strategy.  He saw that the Soviet Union’s economy was a house of cards.  When they tried to keep up with our defense spending their economy collapsed.

Vladimir Putin learned from that.  He is not making the same economic mistakes.  Russian has built real wealth by building pipelines and drilling for oil.  In addition, Putin understands the impact unfunded entitlements have on a nation’s economy:

http://en.ria.ru/russia/20130614/181653890.html

While a modern state must honor its obligation “to take care of its population and ensure its social protection” or face the risk of collapse, European countries have been “living beyond their means” and are now “witnessing the rise of a dependency mentality …

 [that] endangers not only the economy but the moral foundation of society,” Putin said. “It is no secret that many citizens of less developed countries come to Europe specifically to live on social welfare.”

 In contrast, Putin praised Russia’s low unemployment and real wage growth, saying that these, plus the growth of consumer spending and bank lending, are the basic factors stimulating the country’s economy.

“We made our choice long ago. We will not renounce our social obligations,” Putin said of the Russian state.

Putin is a lot of things, most of them bad, but this sure sounds like someone who understands the value of capitalism over socialism.  He makes a lot more economic sense than President Obama.

The current strategy for the U.S. with regard to Russia is to apply economic pressure. My question is whether we threaten them or they threaten us?

The United States has done exactly what Putin warned about.  The United States has followed the European model of living beyond its means and developing a dependency mentality.  Obama has pretty much perfected the art of irresponsible economicy behavior.  It is pretty stunning when a Russian President lectures us on the moral foundation of society.  What makes this worse is that he is right.

The following article in the Wall Street Journal is sobering:

http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2014/03/03/rubin-says-feds-qe3-will-lead-to-trouble/

Robert Rubin, Treasury Secretary under Bill Clinton, gives a stark warning:

“Uncertainties could be far greater with the vast increases that have taken place in the balance sheet of the Fed,” which is now worth more than $4 trillion, up from pre-crisis levels around $800-900 billion.

The real threat from Russia may be worse than a military invasion.  Europe gets about 30% of its oil from Russia and about 25% of its natural gas.  Oil prices have already surged back over $105 per barrel and they may go higher.   Europe desperately needs Russian oil and gas.  Russian desperately needs the cash from selling it’s gas and oil.  Who is going to blink first?  My hunch is that Europe will do whatever it takes to keep warm.  Did anyone check the forecast?

In the meantime Obama has stopped deep water drilling, he has blocked drilling on public land and he is blocking the proposed pipeline.  The only reason we have significant oil supplies now is that he couldn’t stop drilling on private land.  The development of fracking technology moved too fast for him to respond.  We would have much higher domestic oil production if it wasn’t for the brilliant leadership of the first green President.

Obama took office in January 2009.  Now, a little more than five years later we have gone from the most powerful and respected nation in the history of the world to a nearly irrelevant spectator that can be safely ignored.  Liberals must be very proud!

TDM

The political situation in the Ukraine is very complicated.  For example, in 1944 Joseph Stalin deported about 200,000 Tartars from Crimea to the Ukraine.  He believed they were Nazi collaborators.  The Tartars have long memories and they have not forgotten.  The Tartars view the ethnic Russians Putin is trying to protect in the Crimea as illegal occupiers.

The following Wikipedia article provides some insight on the history of the tartars:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatars

Technically the correct name for the Tartars is the Tatars.  One will note that the Tatars, like the Chechens, are Muslim.  One will also note that they have been raising havoc since the days of Genghis Khan.  The media, as always, is oblivious about this.  The other night I had the opportunity to talk to a young Russian couple.  I asked them about the Ukraine.  The husband surprised me by saving some of the protests were saying things similar to what the Nazis believed.  This couple was very pro-American and they were no fans of Putin.  But they were genuinely concerned about some of the people leading those demonstration.  So I did a little research and up popped the Tartars.  Suddenly his comments started to make sense.

I guess this shouldn’t be a surprise.  Every revolution probably has some people who should be feared.  I wonder how many people realize that after the fall of the Tsars, Russia had a Republic.  But what happened is that the communists were not interested in sharing power, they were only interested in seizing power.  They continued fighting until ultimately they gained absolute power.

Regardless of the reason, the invasion of the Crimea by Russia is bad news.  It is clear that Putin is trying to increase power at the expense of the United States.  It is also clear that Putin does not respect Barack Obama.  Whatever happens it is unlikely to be in response to anything done by President Obama or Secretary of State Kerry.  We should keep in mind that the reasoning used by Putin to invade Crimea is nearly identical to what Hitler used to justify invading the Sudetenland.

But this is not 1938 and Vladimir Putin is not Adolph Hitler.  He may dream of reviving the old Soviet Union, but his military isn’t nearly strong enough to pull that off.  Today he may have gained control of the Crimea, but he made a lot of enemies in the process. The most likely result in the Crimea is a full-fledged-civil war.  Putin may soon discover that the cost of maintaining control in Crimea may be more than he can bear.

The only thing certain at this point is the biggest losers.  That would be Barack Obama and John Kerry.  They have been exposed as naïve, inexperienced and worthless.  The western countries, particularly those strong democracies who know full well the cost of being dominated by the Soviet Union will go to war with Putin.  This will not be a shooting war, but it will be war.  And in any war there will be casualties, lots of casualties.  They will take it on, but they won’t bother waiting for leadership from the United States.  The most powerful nation in the history of the world is now mostly irrelevant.  That may change in the future, but it won’t change until the President of the United States is someone other than Barack Hussein Obama.

The opposite of love is not hate, it is apathy.  The world did not necessarily like us, but they respected us and they feared us.  Now they just laugh at us and ignore us.  In the meantime, whatever happens in Crimea, don’t over-look the Tartars.  People have been underestimating them for centuries.

TDM

In July, 2008 Sarah Palin said the following:

“After the Russian army invaded the nation of Georgia, Senator Obama’s reaction was one of indecision and moral equivalence – the kind of response that would only encourage Russia’s Putin to invade Ukraine next,” 

The main stream media responded with horse laughs at such stupidity.  Turns out to be pretty darn accurate.  She is reminding people of that today and the main stream media has noticed:

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2014/02/28/palin-on-ukraine-i-told-you-so/

It reminds me that Winston Churchill was despised by the main stream media in Great Britain when he was warning everyone about Adolph Hitler.  He was ridiculed for his warnings that the weak and indecisive response to Hitler would put the world in grave peril.  The most honored and respected man in Great Britain at the time was Neville Chamberlain.

All of a sudden, the silly and naïve hockey mom from Alaska looks pretty darn Churchillian and Barack Obama looks a lot like Neville Chamberlain.

I am also reminded that the actual trigger of World War II was a treaty that Great Britain and France signed with regard to Poland.  Keep that in mind when you read the following about the Budapest Memorandum.  Once again, we have to learn this from overseas because it doesn’t appear that anyone in the main stream media picked up on this:

The following article from the Daily Mail, UK is very scary:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2570335/Former-British-Ambassador-Moscow-warns-Russia-invaded-Ukraine-difficult-avoid-going-war.html#ixzz2ufwtOIiF

The Budapest Memorandum was signed on February 5, 1994.  Remember that the Soviet Union had disintegrated under President George H.W. Bush.  One of the big problems was that some of the former Soviet states, including the Ukraine, had nuclear weapons.  The Budapest Memorandum was an international treaty that required Ukraine to give up its nuclear weapons in exchange for certain promises:

1. Respect Ukrainian independence and sovereignty within its existing borders.
2. Refrain from the threat or use of force against Ukraine.
3. Refrain from using economic pressure on Ukraine in order to influence its politics.
4. Seek United Nations Security Council action if nuclear weapons are used against Ukraine.
5. Refrain from the use of nuclear arms against Ukraine.
6. Consult with one another if questions arise regarding these commitments.

This was signed by Bill Clinton, John Major, Boris Yeltsin and Leonid Kuchma.   There are already some people claiming that this treaty would require the west to respond militarily if Russia invades the Ukraine.  Note that it specifically states within the borders as they existed in 1994.  That would include the Crimea.

According to this article, Kiev has demanded that the international community live up to the agreement.  This agreement really matters and to the best of my knowledge, no one in the main stream media, including Fox News, is even mentioning it.   If Putin is allowed to invade the Crimea with no threat of a military response will he be encouraged to challenge even more?  He has already sent a warship to dock in Havana, Cuba.  As Sarah Palin would say:  “you betcha.”  Maybe it’s time people stopped laughing at her long enough to listen.

TDM

In October of 1956 the citizens of Hungary initiated major protests against the communist government.  To the surprise of everyone the demonstrators prevailed and the communist government was overthrown.  The people rejoiced.  But in the meantime the Soviet Union was massing troops on the border.  Ultimately the Soviet Union decided that the United States would not intervene, so the troops were sent in and the revolution was crushed.  They were right.  The U.S. did not respond and Hungary paid a very high price as a result.

Now the people in the Ukraine have overthrown their government and once again Russia is massing troops.  There are reports that some Russian troops have already been deployed.

President Obama said any military movements taken by Russia inside of Ukraine would be deeply destablizing.  He said that the United States would stand with the international community and warned Russia that there will be costs for any military intervention in Ukraine.  I am sure Putin is shaking in his boots!   It’s too bad this didn’t happen a few weeks ago so we could have boycotted the Sochi Olympics!.  That really worked for Jimmy Carter.

This is not 1956 and modern day Russia is not the Soviet Union.  This is the age of the internet and the people in the Ukraine may put up more of a fight than you can imagine.  In addition, Russian troops may have a limit to what they are willing to do.  But this is all too similar to Hungary in 1956.  It is also too similar to the tactics used by Adolph Hitler prior to World War II.

I cannot possibly predict what will happen, but it is obvious that no one anywhere in the world will look to the U.S. for leadership.  Ted Cruz recently said that he feared massive loss of life because of the failed leadership of Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John Kerry.  I hope he got that wrong.  I fear he got it right.  The world is Hungary for leadership tonight.  This is not likely to end well.

TDM