Former US ambassador to Hungary: "After years watching Hungary suffocate under the weight of its democratic collapse, I came to understand that the real danger of a strongman isn’t his tactics; it’s how others, especially those with power, justify their acquiescence." (h/t @bnovak.bsky.social)

Szabolcs Vörös is one of a handful of HU journos whose UA reporting provides a critical public service to Hungarians living in Orbán’s disinfo echo chamber Here’s his interview w Zelenskyy — the first w a HU journo since RU’s invasion began over 1,200 days ago www.valaszonline.hu/2025/06/10/v...

Absolutely great news!!!

A prize well deserved! George is a great guy. A true honor to know him. If you’re interested in Hungarian literature, I highly recommend picking up one of George’s many translations.

Christmas jazz. Fire in the fireplace. Kiddos playing with legos. Adults playing Rummy. Leberkäse.

Some personal news: I am very excited to be joining ProPublica as an investigative reporter covering national security and technology starting in January.

Quite minor in the grand scheme of things, but one thing I think blue states (and CA in particular) should be doing if we morph into tariffsland is require companies operating in the state (above some size) to list the price of tariffs on receipts separately

In the rust belt of north-eastern Hungary, a new economy is thriving – one built on human blood. www.theguardian.com/world/2024/n...

Fascinating investigation. www.volexity.com/blog/2024/11...

First fire of the season

Let it be known that I invited @kalmantibs.bsky.social here well over a year ago. He politely declined and said he wouldn’t give up fighting the good fight at the other place just yet. Glad to see him here today. His presence on social media doesn’t do him justice. Great guy if there ever was one.

It’s the little things in life… Had the boys (6 and 2) join me in the living room for a pre-bedtime screening of Prokofiev's Peter and the Wolf narrated by David Bowie. They loved it. What a pleasant experience. youtu.be/Va8Uz6MoKLg?...

Prediction: The next Surgeon General of the United States

“The Black Death was therefore a rare event, ‘with only one generally accepted precursor and no equivalent successor’. Belich has revisions to make to the traditional account. . . .Belich’s answer inculpates the humble gerbil.“ www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v4...

What does the 2017 “Unite the Right” protest in Charlottesville have in common with Hungarian embassy in Washington? www.szabadeuropa.hu/a/amerikai-m...

Shoutout to the heroes who donate obscure old books to libraries.

Yes, Orban does plan to create a yet another agency to secretly investigate and dox the regime's critics. But while ppl whine about "rule of law" and "rights," they lose focus of progress elsewhere, e.g. Scythians are close to being recognized as a national minority and getting a seat in parliament.

Anna Vinnitskaya’s performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with the Budapest Festival Orchestra this evening was mesmerizing

Orbán’s keeping busy. (Kudos to @hungarianhelsinki.bsky.social for the translation) helsinki.hu/en/wp-conten...

The “Cyprus model,” a giant conveyor belt for Russian wealth to the West located in an EU member state Great story from Dean Starkman www.icij.org/investigatio...

This post claims Hungarians have been putting lights in carved pumpkins since 1081. Hard to see how this is true. Pumpkins and squash are native to the Americas. Hungarians would have had to find a way to procure them from the New World hundreds of years before Columbus got there.

New article out! I discuss how autocrats often exploit natural language barriers to say racist and xenophobic things at home while playing to an international audience... www.americanpurpose.com/articles/the...

Still trying to wrap my head around Orbán’s body language during his meeting with Putin in Beijing yesterday youtu.be/AE4ReW3euME?...

It was a pleasure to moderate a panel on the challenges of redemocratization at the Budapest Forum last week. Spoiler: it takes effort Zagreb mayor Tomislav Tomašević's unexpected zinger had me chuckling on stage. He has no problem with people calling him a hippie, just don't call him a hipster.

In 2019, I asked my grandfather to put the story of his life on paper. He did it all — from handwritten notes to 29 carefully-edited Word docs. He even made mp3s of his voice as he read them aloud. He died a few days ago, one month shy of his 90th birthday. What a tremendous gift he left us.

Hungarian lawyer Daniel Karsai is 46 years old. He specializes in constitutional law and human rights. Daniel is also terminally ill. He was diagnosed with ALS last year and can no longer care for himself. He wants to shorten his life before it comes too unbearable, but that's illegal in Hungary.

Visited Castello di Miramare today. I spotted Andrey Melnichenko’s $600 million “Sailing Yacht A,” which Italians authorities seized last March when the EU sanctioned a bunch of Russian oligarchs. Maintaining the seized vessel reportedly requires a crew of 24, and costs about $900k per month.

Beautiful morning in Budapest

Sitting across the room from someone who just wrote some code, tested it, jumped up and excitedly gave me a lecture about the beauty of crisp code and program optimization, then concluded with how this honors his German heritage.

In-laws: “Don’t buy her a new bike. We still have the one she rode as a teenager. It’s in the garage.” Wife: “I loved that bike.” Me: 🕵️‍♂️ The tire on the bike: “MADE IN CZECHOSLOVAKIA”

"The one intriguing exception to this in the data is Hungary" https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camp-rw/?trackId=596d1024ade4e24119dbd316&s=649bb4f79c54b114bea07128&linknum=5&linktot=66&linknum=5&linktot=66

Ist er für Sie ein Kriegsverbrecher? Orban: „Nein. Für mich nicht.“ https://www.bild.de/politik/ausland/politik-ausland/ungarns-ministerpraesident-orban-putin-ist-stabil-84474096.bild.html

1995 edition of THE English-language phone book in Budapest AMADEUS RESTAURANT Excellent food, lousy service

When you're a mercenary for the Confederation of Bar and Russians keep capturing you, so you commandeer a supply-ship sailing from Okhotsk when the crew and captain get drunk, then make a break for the "coast of Korea" but don't have a compass so you try iron and garlic and still end up in Kamchatka

A bittersweet evening in Budapest. We celebrated the Swedish Midsummer, reflected on the achievements of Sweden's soon-to-end EU Presidency, and bid farewell to Dag Hartelius, Sweden's ambassador to Budapest. RU's war in UA and SE's pending NATO accession cast a long shadow.