Excellent, must-read guest post by @davidbaer.bsky.social in today's Morning Shots re elections in Hungary and the fall of Orban this past weekend. "A true patriot has a capacity to feel both pride and shame in his country." www.thebulwark.com/p/maga-inter...

A big if. But a possibility that seemed extremely slim until recently.

"If animals can sense an impending storm through a drop in barometric pressure and other changes to the air, perhaps in politics people can feel a tidal wave when it is approaching."

Orban’s initial plan was likely to keep the election close and then refuse to accept the result. But if he loses in a landslide that becomes impossible. So he’s entertaining more drastic options.

Hungary is at the "Ukraine is covertly interfering in our domestic politics to hurt Orbán" level of authoritarian paranoia and/or cynicism. lnk.thebulwark.com/4b40oHq

Mood in Hungary "is palpably different" than a year ago, with people "more comfortable criticizing Orbán in public.…Public figures speak about the 'Orbán regime' instead of the 'Orbán government.'… "In response, the rhetoric from the regime…has become more threatening, violent, and openly fascist."

The author of this article, @davidbaer.bsky.social, is as keen-eyed an observer of Hungary as you will find among Americans—and a helluva writer. (I like the line about how Tucker Carlson and JD Vance types treat Hungary as a "Christian conservative Disneyland.")

Is Orbánism heading to regime collapse? I share a few of my thoughts here. www.thebulwark.com/p/hungary-co...

The four greatest country music artists

PM Orbán is tightening control ahead of the 2026 election: intimidating critics, banning Pride, allowing the use of facial recognition. These moves aren't unique. We've seen them in Russia, Turkey, Serbia - now they enter the EU. My piece for @gmfus.bsky.social ⤵️ www.gmfus.org/news/authori...

The Secretary of the Navy doesn’t know when Pearl Harbor happened

ICYMI: According to a newly released court document, NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware was used in a 2019 hacking campaign to target a total of 1,223 WhatsApp users across 51 countries, including in multiple EU countries. 🕵️🤳 @investigacecz.bsky.social @vsquare.bsky.social vsquare.org/pegasus-...

“For freedom is always on the defensive, and therefore in danger. Where the populace no longer feels freedom to be in peril, freedom is already lost.”

“A faith which, as such, allows itself to be caught up in the pragmatics of power, is already lost as faith. It grows as truth only within the area of liberty without force.” Karl Jaspers.

“The rule of law produces a climate of fearlessness, unconstraint, liberty and peace of mind. Where force rules there is fear, silence and concealment, coercion and unrest. In the constitutional State trust prevails, in the State based on force there is universal mistrust.” -Karl Jaspers

Trump telling people on social media to “Be Strong, Courageous and GREATNESS will be the result” is like the comic strip version of Nietzsche’s Übermensch

TAPPER: You're imposing a 10% on the Heard and MccDonald islands. They have zero human inhabitants. Why are you putting tariffs on islands entirely populated by penguins? ROLLINS: Whatever. Listen, the people leading this are serious, intentional, patriotic, the smartest I've ever worked with.

Important to remember what Trump is doing in foreign policy to our alliances is as stupid and self destructive as what he’s doing with tariffs. Massive American self harm in every direction.

‼️🇺🇸 Trump allies Ric Grenell and Matt Mowers join the advisory board of Viktor Orbán’s pet company 4iG—a Hungarian IT/telecom/defense giant with major state support and a history of corruption claims. They're expanding fast in the Balkans. 👇Read our earlier @direkt36.bsky.social investigation.👇

💥🇭🇺 Police have given up guarding Budapest’s Liberty Bridge as anti-government protesters shut down traffic on four major bridges, rallying against Viktor Orbán’s new law curbing freedom of assembly and banning the Pride march. They vow to escalate with a 24-hour shutdown next week.

In 1939 the German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer left the United States, where he was studying, to return to Germany. He explained his decision in a letter to Reinhold Niebuhr, "I must live through this difficult period of our national history with the Christian people of Germany.... 1/2

This, from Timothy Snyder, is definitive, on Greenland open.substack.com/pub/snyder/p...

I suppose if Walz had been running around on stage with a chainsaw that would have been justified joy.

Swedish journalist Joakim Medin arrested on arrival in Istanbul. His whereabouts are unknown.

Right-wing YouTuber Tim Pool has made it to the White House pool — someone from his “Timcast” channel will be part of today’s pool duty covering the president. Last year, DOJ revealed Pool was receiving millions of dollars from the Russian gov. Pool says he didn’t know where it was coming from.

Swedish journalist Joakim Medin arrested on arrival in Istanbul. His whereabouts are unknown.

Now he wants price controls?! www.wsj.com/business/aut...

America is now a place that sends masked secret police to abduct people off the street and uses prisoners to create government propaganda. And this all happened in 8 weeks. www.thebulwark.com/p/this-is-th...

"The point is to create a climate in which agents of the state routinely wear masks to conceal their identities and street abductions are not out of the ordinary." // great read from @jvl.bsky.social www.thebulwark.com/p/this-is-th...

This is insane

Suspending Hungarian citizenship for dual nationals, violations of freedom of assembly and the attempt to ban Pride🏳️‍🌈 -- the Orbán government is escalating its efforts to stifle dissent and weaken human rights protections in Hungary🇭🇺. Our 2 new briefs explain the plans ➡️ helsinki.hu/en/legislati...

💥Hungary sliding further into authoritarianism: Viktor Orbán’s close ally, Speaker of the House László Kövér, banned the entire liberal Momentum party faction from parliament and fined them €175,000 for protesting Orbán's Pride crackdown—setting a precedent to ban other elected opposition MPs too.

‼️JUST IN: #Hungary's Parliament (with the 2/3 majority of ruling party Fidesz-KDNP) voted yes to ban the Pride march and impose fines on organisers and people attending the event. Opposition party Momentum burnt smoke candles in protest.

Budapest today. People are demanding that PM Orban resign.

Another March 15 holiday in Hungary. It’s clear at this point that Orban can’t mobilize crowds like Magyar can. Meanwhile Orban’s rhetoric is becoming increasingly authoritarian, almost Stalinist.

Both Söder and Merz have said more than once that the new defense package sends a clear signal to Germany’s “friends and enemies.” This new German willingness to talk about the country’s “enemies” is striking.

American politics makes a lot more sense when you realize that the GOP is afraid of pissing off the GOP base, and the Dems are afraid of pissing off the GOP base, but neither party is afraid of pissing off the Dem base.

Germany’ Linke party surged before national elections because their leader, Heidi Reichinnek, criticized CDU for submitting legislation also supported by AfD. Now Linke is challenging a bill, alongside AfD, at the constitutional court proposed by CDU & SPD. Go figure.

#Hungarian govt plans to amend constitution to allow the expulsion of dual nationals if they "endanger sovereignty, (...) or security." Fidesz's Kocsis says this targets NGOs, politicians and "self-proclaimed independent media" - a worrying attack on #pressfreedom

If we do have a recession, it will be a big beautiful recession! www.washingtonpost.com/politics/202...

I found this article quite informative. There will be significant nuclear expansion in Europe, but Europeans may be smart enough to do it in a way that doesn’t lead to uncontrolled proliferation. www.faz.net/aktuell/poli...

Stunning poll from Germany. 76% of total population support increasing military spending, including 50% of AfD voters. youtube.com/watch?v=UzM_...

Thinking of the many people who have lectured me over the years about the inherently democratic nature of the U.S. institutions and people. This "American exceptionalism" is implicit in so much of the debate about U.S. politics, including within academia, and is still taught uncritically today!

Russia rejects French Ukrainian cease fire proposal. Time for Trump to lean more heavily on Zelensky!

Trump responds to Zelensky’s cease fire proposal by cutting of US intelligence sharing, on grounds Zelensky isn’t serious about peace. How perplexing!

"Hungary has found a receptive partner in its efforts to investigate USAID: the American government.... [Peter] Marocco ordered the termination of all USAID contracts in Hungary... also requested data from the agency’s staff about U.S. programs in Hungary stretching back years."

French Senator Claude Malhuret: "Washington has become Nero’s court, with an incendiary emperor, submissive courtiers and a jester high on ketamine... We were at war with a dictator, we are now at war with a dictator backed by a traitor."

I think the free world may have a new leader

What Germany is about to do with its budget, and exempting military spending from the balanced budget requirement, is astounding. Zeitenwende on steroids. I fear being optimistic, but it really looks like Europe is stepping up. Much more so than I would have imagined.