How it started / how it's going

Because (it was believed) Matthew died without a will, Lady Mary owned a third of his half of Downton, which Robert had sold to him after his investments went south. But with the discovery (again) of a secret letter, Mary owned his entire half outright, avoiding a trusteeship battle between the two.

The paper shredders are grinding like mad as the clock ticks down to the sitting of the new Hungarian Parliament next month...and bags are being packed for Moscow and Minsk.

More European good news coming out of the Sunday election in Hungary is that Magyar has repeatedly signaled his government would return to the euro convergence path essentially abandoned under Fidesz. The forint has lost nearly half its value in the years of Orbán rule. www.cnbc.com/2026/04/13/h...

This 💯

Also, what made it impossible for Orbán to just ignore the results is Hungary's membership in the EU and NATO. Those two factors are exactly the difference between Hungary and Serbia, which seemed like two different flavors of the same Kremlin corrupt nationalist client state. Until tonight that is.

For folks in the U.S. who may think that voting doesn't matter because of Republican voter suppression and gerrymanders, just look at this map. The far right was practically wiped off it tonight, despite 16 years of Fidesz state capture.

It is official: Orbán has lost decisively in the Hungarian election and will be out as PM, possibly never able to run again if Tisza holds its supermajority and passes desperately needed electoral reforms. A massive win, arguably even more significant than the mixed situation in Poland currently.

This is going to have downstream effects throughout the region, Slovakia for starters, and even here in Germany, where the far right has been riding high on hopes of taking its first state government in the fall. Orbán has been running an entire far-right media and influence ecosystem across Europe.

Almost half the votes in and opposition party has crossed the supermajority theshold (some sites say 133, some say 138 so I am not sure). If it holds this is a massive win for Tisza and a colossal rejection of 16 years of Orbán/Fidesz rule in a country that was nearly lost to democracy.

An example of what Tisza could do with a supermajority: pass a retroactive amendment limiting the Prime Minister to two terms, and thus ending Orbán's political career forever. And that is on top of undoing the gerrymanders, the court packing, and the kidnapping of state media under Fidesz.

More Hungary updates--the national election board has got a quarter of votes in, with Tisza brushing up against supermajority territory. They have an English-language setting. 199 seats, 138 needed for a supermajority. The ultra-far-right Homeland (Mi Hazank) party just over the 5% threshold at 6%.

To strike a cautiously optimistic note, the early returns in the Hungarian election come mostly from small rural precincts that can do a fast count--and were expected to favor Orbán. But that is not what is happening here so far, 90 minutes after close of polls.

More Hungary election stats: Tisza needs 138 of 199 seats to achieve the supermajority that can actually turn the clock back on the country's backsliding under Orbán. That means putting up big numbers, given the massive gerrymandering that sets a low bar for Fidesz and a high one for the opposition.

I thought this might be fake, but it is a legit Agence France-Presse photo distributed through the wires. Most important day for negotiations in the Middle East and the U.S. Secretary of State is visibly three sheets to the wind at a Miami fight match.

My one and only trip to Hungary was in the spring of 1990 when I was a teenage exchange student in Germany. It was right in the runup to the first free parliamentary elections since the fall of Communism. And the first I had heard of Fidesz and Orbán, who was a much different animal then.

All countries have their own electoral dynamics (or lack thereof), but today's election in Hungary is definitely going to be read as a potential harbinger for whether voters will turf out far-right governments and politicians in Israel and the United States later this fall.

A primer for today's "free but not fair" parliamentary election in Hungary. There's no reliable exit polling (laws prohibit pollsters from getting close enough), so results won't trickle in until around 8, an hour after polls close, with a possible result by midnight. www.politico.eu/article/how-...

More fun facts to know and tell: the Syrian Orthodox Church continues to use a Syrian Aramaic translation of the Bible called the Peshitta, which means that is the modern church whose members have a text that is still relatively close to the language Jesus actually spoke his sermons and parables in.

Today is Easter Sunday in the Orthodox churches, which includes Greece, Bulgaria, Ukraine, Russia, and parts of North Africa and West Asia such as the Coptic Church and the Syrian Orthodox Church (which still uses Aramaic). Христос воскресе! / Hristos voskrese! Χριστὸς ἀνέστη! / Hristos anesti!

If a guy famous for his tactful diplomacy and ability to find compromise couldn't pull this one off, who on earth can? edition.cnn.com/2026/04/12/w...

Successful splashdown and recovery of the Artemis crew, having traveled farther than any humans in all of history. I can't even imagine what it is like for them coming home.

How bad has far-right rule over Hungary been for its people? After the fall of Communism in 1989-90, the country led the former Eastern bloc states in economic growth, investment, and prosperity. But after two decades of Orbán, Hungary is now close to the very bottom of the economic pile in Europe.

Persian in the Middle Ages and early Renaissance had a status akin to French as the de facto diplomatic language of Asia. When Marco Polo traveled to China he communicated to the mandarins in Persian, just one of many things I learned in this brief but powerful essay. www.nybooks.com/articles/202...

And the biggest Berlin fountain of all? It is the artificial waterfall in the Viktoriapark on the original Kreuzberg hill. The waterworks put out nearly 3000 gallons (13000 liters) per minute over a drop of 80 feet (30 meters). That is one big fountain, even though people don't think of it that way.

The warmth also means they've started turning the fountains back on (Brunnensaison). A few have been going since a few days ago, the rest will be switched in increments through mid-May. The fountain in the Lustgarten is one of the oldest in the city, an eagle eye can spot its outlet into the Spree.

I was on the fence with one of them and made the right guess. And who knew that is where Play-Doh comes from? Flashback for April 11, 2026 28 points 🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩 Play here: www.nytimes.com/interactive/...

So I didn't know until today that Trabants (the famously clunky East German cars) were built on the site of the original Audi factory in Zwickau, which before WWII was called the Auto Union for the four manufacturers who shared the plant, and is still commemorated in the four rings of the Audi logo.

First day of comfortable balcony weather in Berlin in what seems like weeks. Another temperature dip on Sunday and then it is warm weather from there on out, at long last. Less than half of the trees have started to leaf, given the low temps and overnight frosts. But today is pleasant and sunny.

TFW you're in Paris and head over to the Singerie expecting to enjoy a nice choral concert, and it is FULL OF FREAKIN' MONKEYS!

"Washington can pretend it does not care if it loses allies, even as it dispatches the vice-president to Hungary to try to prop up the pro-Russian prime minister, Viktor Orbán. But what it cannot countenance is no longer being feared." www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

Donde está el gato #caturday

This being an American article, there is scant mention of white asparagus, and no mention at all of asparagus steamers, that let you cook them upright and are commonplace here in ze old country. But still some good tips here and there.

During WWII San Francisco was obviously full of sailors, so as a consequence a whole row of gay bars sprouted up on Chestnut Street in the Marina outside the Presidio. We know this because the Navy posted pamphlets telling enlisted men what taverns were forbidden. Said pamphlets always went missing.

What a fascinating story. I honestly did not know that Oscar Wilde had any descendants whatsoever, to say nothing of a grandson who is actual still living (and has an uncle who was killed in WWI!). www.nytimes.com/2026/04/10/b...

On my umpteenth Downton rewatch. I'm near the end of Season 2 when Lavinia notices Matthew's pup tent while watching the new Mary Pickford film, and they discover his spine hadn't been transected after all. And then Daisy is caught using a Delia Smith cookery book and Mrs. Patmore chucks it at her!

Berlin and Brandenburg drew the late straw in the Easter holidays, so we are still enjoying the last few days of vacay before school (and students) return on Monday. And yes, we still have overnight frosts and even reports of light snow in the region, so Kittenz and I are staying in...

"He is still dangerous, and he could still unleash terror on the people of Iran should the cease-fire collapse. But his uppercase blasts, chest-thumping rants and coarse insults are more likely now to draw a Gallic shrug."

Well Gen X takes the heat for just about everything, but just for the record: The average age of the Artemis astronauts is 48-50. That is smack dab in the middle of Gen X, folks, the generational cohort from 1965 to 1980. We must have done something right...

my boy cat does this

But hey, some trans kid can't play soccer anymore somewhere in West Virginia, black people and women can no longer be promoted in the military, and radical left libtards are getting shot dead on residential streets by government troops, so MAGAs will take the win. www.cnbc.com/2026/03/13/f...

"These are two of the central races on the ballot in a critical year for American democracy. What they are not is terribly clicky." www.politico.com/news/magazin...

"Under their proposals: Refugees would be deported or moved into group homes. Large families would get tax breaks. Child care, already heavily subsidized, would be free. Public broadcasters would lose funding. Schools would ban gay pride flags and teach more Russian." www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/w...

In hopeful political news, barring massive electoral fraud by Orbán, his far-right regime worshipped by U.S. MAGAs and the German AfD may well come crashing down after the Hungarian election this Sunday, which is the first nationwide election on the 2026 calendar. www.theguardian.com/world/2026/a...

We've had a cool, even chilly, start to spring in Berlin, with nighttime frosts returning. We take another temperature dip over the next few days, with the hopes of a possibly actual warm weekend coming after the chill and rain. www.rbb24.de/panorama/bei...

It would take a supermajority just to undo the requirement that most changes to the law require a supermajority, thanks to Orbán. Once you knock that down, you can really start to undo the damage, de-gerrymander the parliamentary constiuencies, replace corrupt judges, etc. Praying that this happens.

Hey look at me! "Historical analogies are never exact. But with the tenuous cease-fire deal in the US-Israeli war against Iran, some are asking whether this is a “Suez” moment for the United States, marking the waning of American power and credibility in the world." www.nytimes.com/2026/04/09/w...

You know, I was really into that new NYT Pips game over the Christmas holidays, but since then it is like, "I don't have the time to deal with this right now". Pips #234 Medium 🟡 1:05

This is all so crazy. Iran now de facto controls the strait, decades of brand-building by Dubai and Doha are smoking in ashes, thousands of civilians, including hundreds of innocent children dead--only to achieve a *less free* shipping regime in the Middle East.

Here is the amazing deal the Stable Genius negotiated with Iran, as reported by that radical left libtard fake news outfit, The Wall Street Journal. He literally called it an "acceptable basis for negotiations."