The Bulwark has done some of the best work translating for an American audience the significance of Hungary and what lessons can be drawn and used in our own political context. www.thebulwark.com/p/a-new-hung...

When we started talking to dissidents from around the world for our book, ON COURAGE, many were skeptical that life was really changing in the U.S. By a few weeks into the new Administration, they were singing a different tune. You can pre-order the book here: www.harpercollins.com/product...

Under Trump, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has been all but destroyed. That means less oversight of shady financial actors — including the booming "Buy Now, Pay Later" industry. Former CFPB Director Rohit Chopra explains how consumers are paying the price.

Had a BLAST doing my first-ever book signing last night! Schmoozed with New England indie booksellers and signed advance copies of ON COURAGE. Savoring the thrill of finally getting to bring these ideas and stories into the world, where we hope they'll make a difference. See you out there soon!?

Authoritarians and tech executives are learning from each other, reinforcing each other, drawing on the same anti‑democratic logic. A small group decides what’s best while everyone else has to live with the consequences. We're not buying that anymore.

Very powerful piece from Jonathan Jacoby: "My father had every chance to escape the Nazis. But after each mission, he came back to rescue more. He never stopped fighting for a better future for his fellow Jews. Neither should we."

JUST IN: John Eastman, the conservative attorney who helped devise President Trump's last ditch strategy to overturn the 2020 presidential election, has officially been disbarred, per the California Supreme Court:

They’re inventing fun new conspiracy theories every day now. The Democrats sent the Jew to scheme with the Pope to undermine the Christian nationalist President. A golden age for antisemitic innovation, I tell ya.

We Americans have a hard time seeing ourselves in the world, and so even when we want to criticize our fascist oligarchs we fail to see the international networks of which they are nodes.

This year, something about the "statementization" of Yom Hashoah feels like a mistake and an abdication of responsibility. Not a dig at any elected official in particular; I've written a thousand of these kinds of statements for politicians over the years. But the box-checking exercise "marking...

JD Vance telling Bobby Flay how to make BBQ.

JD Vance telling Beyonce how to put a ring on it.

JD Vance telling Gordon Ramsey how to make a beef wellington

JD Vance telling Jack White how to write a guitar riff

JD Vance telling Tom Brady how to throw a tight spiral

Quite a flex to turn up at the presidential palace, get him to confirm you as prime minister, call him unfit to serve with no moral authority, tell him to resign, and then pose for a picture

The verdict, reached after several days of deliberation, leaves the live entertainment giant open to a potential breakup — which was the stated goal of the lawsuit back when it was filed by the Biden administration’s Department of Justice.

This year, something about the "statementization" of Yom Hashoah feels like a mistake and an abdication of responsibility. Not a dig at any elected official in particular; I've written a thousand of these kinds of statements for politicians over the years. But the box-checking exercise "marking...

How to make a boring guy a resistance martyr in three easy steps Part 10000

How to make a boring guy a resistance martyr in three easy steps Part 10000

First time using this platform. Here is my dog. I gave him boops after.

The “never talk about race because it might alienate the racists” wing of the Democratic pundit class must be having an aneurysm

Spanberger amends, signs sweeping gun legislation reshaping Virginia’s firearm laws www.newsfromthestates.com/article/span...

news happens so fast that I also forgot the president posted a murder video like a day or two before the Jesus fiasco and it's crazy that the latter made more of a stir

Someone is dying in ICE custody EVERY WEEK. And that doesn't even include the American citizens ICE has killed in the middle of our streets in broad daylight. It could not be more clear, ICE needs guardrails, not a blank check from Congress.

YOUSE GUYSE NAZIS ARE BAD yes, even worse than people who get offended about things you don't get please trust us, the jews, on this? (Please also do not ignore the 3rd gen Latinae kids in a few decades whose finely tuned instincts about ICE will be, trust, on fucking point.)

About once a year I think about the song "The President Sang Amazing Grace" performed by Joan Baez, written by Zoe Mulford after the Mother Emanuel shooting. Putting the lyrics in this thread because its themes – seeing one another, dignity, honor, grace – are salve and a calling for America now.

A lot of people have obvious tells that indicate they’re lying, but none may be as funny as the president’s “to tell you the truth”

@billkristolbulwark.bsky.social asks if “liberal patriotism” can beat autocracy here as it has in Hungary. Magyar invoked a famous poem by a hero of the 1848 Hungarian Revolution to stir national pride. Is there any poem, lyric, verse meaningful to a wide enough swath of America to move us as such?

To explain the incredibly important lesson I think Americans should take from the Orbán defeat, I have to start by telling you about my high school friend Jonah who is the biggest LA Dodgers fan I've ever met. Weird, I know. But deeply relevant. Let me tell you why. 🧵🧵🧵

Thinking more about this on Yom Hashoah - Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Khanna: They’re saying this technology is going to be bigger than nuclear, bigger than electricity, bigger than aviation. Last I checked, we have an FAA for aviation, nuclear energy is regulated, and electricity is regulated.

Reminiscent of the reaction of Brezhnev and Jaruzelski to John Paul II, though quite a bit more hysterical. www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/u...

“Stealing one person’s Social Security data is a felony. DOGE is accused of stealing the data of 500 million Americans, living and dead. That amounts to the greatest data theft in history.” – Nancy Altman, President of Social Security Works

@billkristolbulwark.bsky.social asks if “liberal patriotism” can beat autocracy here as it has in Hungary. Magyar invoked a famous poem by a hero of the 1848 Hungarian Revolution to stir national pride. Is there any poem, lyric, verse meaningful to a wide enough swath of America to move us as such?

A lot of people have obvious tells that indicate they’re lying, but none may be as funny as the president’s “to tell you the truth”

About once a year I think about the song "The President Sang Amazing Grace" performed by Joan Baez, written by Zoe Mulford after the Mother Emanuel shooting. Putting the lyrics in this thread because its themes – seeing one another, dignity, honor, grace – are salve and a calling for America now.

New rule: when reporting on super PACs spending zillions to try to influence a major election, please include who is funding them. Why does it matter that "so-called 'never Steyer' forces" are spending $$? Who is this? Another candidate? Someone else? Sheesh. www.politico.com/newsletters/...

Thus, today's election is not really the end of an authoritarian regime. Rather, it is the first step in a much longer unwinding process. It is massive and absolutely necessary first step — one that anyone who believes in democracy should celebrate. But it's more a beginning than an end.

Here it is: the explanation for Orban’s concession articulated in two sentences

Hungary under Orbán was one of the most effective such regimes in the world. Fidesz developed an incredibly sophisticated system for marginalizing the opposition, including controlling 80-90 percent of media. This @kimlanelaw.bsky.social piece has details. www.journalofdemocracy.org/articles/how...

A lot of Orbán's American fans are saying that this election proved he was never an authoritarian in the first place. This is completely wrong — and, in fact, betrays a complete misunderstanding of both Hungarian politics and modern authoritarianism. Here's why.

A far more subtle take by @zackbeauchamp.bsky.social www.vox.com/politics/485...

It is crazymaking to listen to the right claim Orban's loss means he was never an authoritarian when people in Hungary feared that opposing him would immiserate their families www.nytimes.com/2026/04/13/o...

In the end, Hungarians showed us not only how to beat a thuggish nationalist, but also how to defeat our own stubborn cynicism. Set some Google news alerts. Get a little invested. The future can still be ours. Nothing is inevitable.

Paying close attention to global democracy movements helps us understand how things can change. It also grants us emotional entry into this profoundly global work. There are models, new ones every day, for stepping off the path of autocracy.

Okay but what do you think would happen if he posted an AI generated image of himself as the Lubavitcher Rebbe tho

Okay but what do you think would happen if he posted an AI generated image of himself as the Lubavitcher Rebbe tho

Ahem

I hope there is an "autopsy" underway tonight in the White House and Knesset and all the capitals where Orbán had devotees in power. As always it will commit the obvious to ink. In this case: most people don't like nationalistic thuggery, or becoming global pariahs, and want to keep their rights.