An interesting development in the Balkans: a long time strong man is unhorsed for corruption

Both Viktor Orban and Aleksandar Vucic have something in common: Russian-leaning strongmen who were brought down because of the anger of their corruption. This is interesting. The Student LIST movement just ousted the current strongman Aleksandar Vucic in Serbia via parliamentary elections.. The List was angered by the collapse of a railway station canopy, which exposed government corruption and contracting incompetence.. It was about both that and student grievances against the government policies, as well as a Trump family deal. Yeah! We cheer another strongman bit the dust. Chalk one up for democracy. Well, democracy worked, but those supporting Vucic's fall were not necessarily more pro-West, either.

List's agenda wasn't about joining or not joining the EU or NATO.. List's demands ignored the EU issue and advocated military and national neutrality. Reuters believes neighboring Croatia and Montenegro, both NATO members, influenced the uprising and unhorsing of the Vucic government. Per a PBS report, students were also angered about the government's approval of a development by Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, that would have removed an historic ruin dear to Serbian nationalists angered by US bombing of Belgrade in the Kosovo conflict (another Serbian/Muslim conflict).

Things are never simple in the Balkans, yet what happens there does not stay there, given its access to the Mediterranean, which Russia has always coveted, and a religious affinity with Russia orthodox church and culture,including a similar alphabet. Serbia had applied for membership in the EU, but it was de facto put on pause because a massive street gathering celebrated as a hero the death of a Bosnian Serb, Ratko Mladić, who was serving a life prison term in The Hague. The World Court found him guilty of leading the mass killing of

8 thousand men and boys who were Muslims from the Bosnian village of Srebrenica. The long-reigning Vucic government in Serbia opposed the public celebration of the “hero’s Mladic" funeral in mass demonstrations as Mladic's body was returned to Belgrade, Serbia, because of fears, rightly, that their application to the EU would be put on hold..

Also eye-raising last night on US TV was one of the leaders of Student List, the student movement bringing down the government, flashing a two-handed victory sign of the right-leaning Chetniks... a hyper-Serbian nationalist movement active even before world war 11..During World War II the Chetniks were the surviving royalists that had fought the Nazi's with the hope that the Serbian king would be restored to the throne. (Yugoslavia was formed in the wake of WW I with pasting together warring ethnic regions that had a Serbian king, a constitutional monarch, until the Nazi invasion of the country) . Student List appears to be more of a nationalistic movement than not; however, one can also hope that Serbian neutrality is better than being a Putin satellite.

The implications for peace in the Balkans are huge since Serbian history is one of closeness to Russia, and Putin has been trying to get more influence in that ethnically conflicted and heated cauldron. Their client state in Bosnia, the semi-autonomous Republika Srpska, just elected a pro-Putin government with the assistance of Trump’s own campaign operatives.

Felicia Muftic is a long-time close-up observer of the Balkans, since her visit as an ezchange student in Europe in the late 1950's, married for over 50 years to an immigrant from Croatia with close Bosnian roots. At Northwestern, her independent senior year study was on Balkan History, culture, and economies. Over the past 50 years, she has visited every corner of the former Yugoslavia, and the family has been involved in import and distribution from that area even today. She has also been involved in humanitarian aid post-civil war in the 1990s.

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2026/10/whose-side-is-trump-on-anyway-from.html

Rutinel is right to oppose 133 (proposing harsher penalties for traffickers) and Evans is deceptive and wrong in CO district 8 race

 Gabe Evans/Manny Rutinel race for the 8th Congressional district in Colorado is boiling down to two issues. (D)Rutinel is focusing on affordability, and GOP incumbent Evans is for law and order and says Rutinel is not because he voted against harsh penalties for human trafficking, as is ballot issue 133. Rutinel is right. Evans is deceptive and counts on voters' ignorance. No major anti trafficking, anti-violence against women organizations in Colorado support 133 because: 1) it punishes victims 2) it is a sneaky way to stop women from other states from seeking abortions in Colorado., Take a look at those who oppose 133 and from a press release on September 17, the Colorado Coalition Against Sexual Assault (CCASA) and Cobalt hosted a joint media briefing on how Proposition 133 (Penalties for Human Trafficking of a Minor) on the November ballot harms victims of sex trafficking, sexual and domestic violence, and child abuse, and deceives the public about its impacts. In addition to CCASA and Cobalt, Prop 133 is opposed by a growing coalition of victim service organizations, advocates, and survivors, including the Colorado Children’s Alliance (CCA), Colorado Organization for Victim Assistance (COVA), Violence Free Colorado, Rocky Mountain Victim Law Center (RMvlc), Laboratory to Combat Human Trafficking, RMIAN, Project Safeguard, the Women’s Foundation of Colorado, COLOR Action Fund, Lotus Foundation, Sweetgrass Advocacy, Caring for Colorado Foundation, Project PAVE, 4 The Child, The Family Tree, and ACLU of Colorado.

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2026/10/vote-no-on-colorado-prop-133-regardng.html

Don't count on Colorado AG candidate.Allen to defend vote integrity, protect us from ICE and attacks on reproductive rights

 So much has been made of whether one or the other is a better administrator, but what far more crucially counts in the race for Colorado Attorney General is what the AG likely will do or not do. We have a good idea from GOP Michael Allen's past actions and statements of what Allen likely will NOT do. Don't count on him to protect vote integrity and ballot access convenience, to defy Trump's attempt to take over Colorado's control of who, where, and how we vote, to stop ICE's excessive use of force, or to protect against attacks on the Colorado Constitution's protection of women's reproductive rights. Democrat Jena Griswold is on the opposite side from Allen in all of these issues, and she has already proved her effectiveness in their defense.

The single case made by supporters of Michael Allen, GOP, is that he is a better manager. Unlike Griswold, he is also a prosecuting attorney in the courtroom, a skill AGs rarely, if ever, use, because there is a whole division that does that in the AG's office. That attack line is also an attempt to get voters away from focusing on what important issues are at stake. Allen claims Griswold is a poor manager based on skimpy evidence and is an arguable judgment call. If Griswold, as Secretary of State,, was "such a poor manager," she certainly has been effective, including keeping in check rogue county clerks who failed to keep elections fair and free during her tenure. Her business service sections ran smoothly, as well.(As a small business owner, I use her office frequently)

-Allen likely will not use his skills to protect ballot integrity..He follows the agenda of election deniers. He supports the suppressive SAVE Act and prefers in-person voting instead of mail-in ballots., Griswold has shown grit, courage, and skill in protecting fair and free elections as Secretary of State, including bringing Tina Peters to face justice. for breaking rules that had assured bi-partisan scrutiny control over the count. and then lying in a cover-up. Griswold successfully defied Trump's demand to turn over protected voter rolls as Secretary of State, and protected the gold-standard mail-in system.

- Allen will likely not protect Colorado from excessive force and cruelty of ICE. He supports ICE activities in Colorado; Griswold promises action to stop ICE's illegal actions.

- Allen likely will not protect challenges to the state constitution, which protects a woman's right to choose, because he is an extreme advocate against abortion even in the case of rape and incest, and opposed that same amendment that protects women's reproductive rights. Griswold is a firm supporter of women's reproductive rights.

https://mufticforumblog.blogspot.com/2026/10/the-hidden-agendas-in-race-for-colorado.html

Welcome to Yugoslavia. Flashbacks to the raid on Ilhan Omar's home

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It is still dark, not sure what time it is, and someone is knocking at the apartment door...and a chill and terror make you suddenly wide awake, heart pounding. It is the secret police again, hunting for a family member they believe to be a danger to their government and state. You go to the door; in a rush, the police push in and search every nook and cranny. After they leave, you shakily make a cup of coffee and try to calm yourself down. That was the life of my mother-in-law, Baba, as the Yugoslav Communists took control of their lives post-WWII. It was still a problem when two of my pre-teen children spent time with Baba, and once again, the banging in the night, as the secret police demanded ot know what foreigners were staying with her. Baba produced my two very frightened children, and they went away. I had flashbacks to what happened to Ilhan Omar, a congresswoman, when Trump's police minions, ICE knocked on the door to search for evidence to justify their suspicions that, sometime when she was 12, she lied to get her citizenship. No evidence yet, but surely they will find it. Why? Because she was deemed an enemy of Trump: black, Muslim, immigrant, woman, and an outspoken critic.....Welcome to Yugoslavia in the 1950s, 60s and 70s.