Orban didn't have some kind of magic touch or contact with "real" people. Hungarians have rejected his authoritarian populism and his faux-nationalist propaganda www.ms.now/morning-joe/...

Really important story from @wired.com: The Christian Nationalists who want to destroy the American secular state are now making their presence felt www.wired.com/story/govern...

Since I was away for a long weekend, I missed this weekly chat from a few days ago between David Rothkopf & Norm Ornstein, two of my MOST favoritest Jews, on the DSR Network. 😊 But I’m catching up today! 😊 @djrothkopf.bsky.social @normornstein.bsky.social @thedsrnetwork.bsky.social

New: Olivia Troye, a former adviser to Vice President Mike Pence who left the White House in 2020 and became a vocal critic of President Donald Trump, just announced that she’s running for Congress as a Democrat. www.nbcnews.com/politics/202...

“A new CBS News/YouGov poll found Trump's approval among white voters without college degrees — the backbone of his movement — has swung from +36 early in his term to underwater at -4, a 40-point collapse.” www.axios.com/2026/04/14/t...

Pamela Jo should be testifying under oath today before House Oversight about the Epstein Files, but she is intentionally ignoring her subpoena. I mean, as far back as Feb. 2025, Pamela Jo was hellbent on getting justice per the below Facebook post. Let’s get the contempt process started, shall we?

"Even amid the troubled and chaotic state of American journalism (the weakened Wash Post & CBS News, among many other developments), journalism is doing its essential job." @sulliview.bsky.social And as in Hungary, indie media is playing a key role. margaretsullivan.substack.com/p/three-reas...

"Oil is an absolutely essential commodity that's built into our economy in all sorts of ways that are not immediately obvious." It shows up in diesel, jet fuel, fertilizer, plastics, asphalt, and more. So when oil gets pricier, the hit doesn’t stop at the pump. It spreads through the whole economy.

5/ If you’re reading this thread because you follow me, then you’re probably committed to making sure we don’t become the Nazis. I wrote about who *we* are & what we can & are doing, & why it’s important for us to keep it up. open.substack.com/pub/joycevan...

Honestly, how much more nonsense are we going to have to go through before the people around Trump grasp that he is mentally sick, a danger to America and the world--and he needs to be removed from office?

Always read @qjurecic.bsky.social !!!!

"we negotiate through bombs" - Hegseth

"A winner trusts that his and his party’s policies will earn him the support of voters. A winner welcomes the will of the people. A winner does not work methodically to deny voters access to the polls in order to suppress the vote...Donald Trump is a loser." open.substack.com/pub/america/...

Inflation expectations are the group chat of macroeconomics: once everyone thinks prices are going up, everyone starts acting like prices are going up, and then... surprise... prices go up.

Seems sensible

Mark Ruffalo, Glenn Close, Ben Stiller, Jane Fonda, John Cusack, Kristen Stewart, JJ Abrams, Katie Phang, John Leguizamo, and over a thousand actors, writers, directors, journalists, producers, composers, and Hollywood executives have signed a letter against the Paramount-Warner Bros. merger: 🧵

2/ "[W]hether the United States carries out the blockade in a legal manner will affect, among other things, allied States’ willingness to participate and the overall effectiveness of the blockade." By @marknevitt.bsky.social, Commander, JAGC (ret.), Associate Professor of Law at Emory University

“From the defeat of Viktor Orbán, to his reckless lies about winning in Iran, to his abusing of allies who despise him & terrible policies rejected by Americans, to his only plan to win the midterms is cheating & suppressing the vote, Donald Trump is a loser.” www.americaamerica.news/p/donald-tru...

I don't know what time On Point broadcasts on your local @npr.org station, but if it's live, I'm on right now, and if it's delayed, I'll be on later today. Chatting with Meghna Chakrabarti and digging into the economic costs of war...

German chancellor Friedrich Merz in a press conference this morning. He's right about every detail, too.

Trump is demonstrating the importance of credibility in international relations. He is not credible. He’s shown that others can’t trust what he says, and can’t act as if his stance will be the same tomorrow. He can’t communicate demands or make reliable offers. He made America’s word is worthless.

This is partly why compellence (getting a country to do something it doesn't want to do, or undo what it has already done) is so hard: you need to be able to provide *assurance* that you will accept their actions and refrain from further punishment, etc. See @reidpauly.bsky.social's book!

Can we STOP pretending Trump has a plan?! The imbecile has just increased Iran’s leverage, Made life worse for all of us, …all because he’s a thick AF egomaniac and Netanyahu’s little lapdog.

More evidence submissions for Section 4, 25th Amendment

Once more before Sunday ends, here’s today’s thread. Please share if you see this & are able to help spread all this great work to all of the folks, & thanks! 🗃️ @hcrichardson.bsky.social

Bang-up job by JD Vance this weekend. Sent to Hungary to bolster Orbán and instead contributes to his shellacking. Sent to negotiate with Iran and is told to pound sand because Iran knows the Admin is now playing the weaker hand. At home, he’s likely toast as a future candidate. Well deserved.

@elienyc.bsky.social says the clock is ticking on our chance to stop Convicted Felon Donald Trump from committing more atrocities. He explains how impeachment, conviction, and removal will stop future catastrophes from taking place & if we don’t try, we’ll be complicit. youtu.be/Br7aYjLBHkY?...

So JD Vance traveled to Hungary to endorse a candidate who appears likely to lose and then went to Pakistan to fall on his face with the Iran negotiations. Truly an impressively terrible international trip.

This reality check by Rebecca Solnit grabs you right from the killer first sentence. Do yourself a favor & give it a read.

The great military historian Lawrence Freedman with an excellent summary of the causes of US defeat in Iran. Please read consider following. @ldfreedman.bsky.social samf.substack.com/p/the-causes...

Not that I expect him to know this, but a blockade is an act of war

We have a president who took the nation into a war for reasons he cannot fully articulate, without a strategy for how to respond if Iran did the expected and closed the Strait of Hormuz, and without an exit strategy if Iran doesn’t surrender. Reminder that Congress can step up and stop this.

Still awestruck by the photos taken by the crew of Artemis II. Maybe it’s my upbringing in the Apollo era, but I can’t get enough. www.nasa.gov/gallery/luna...

The adults under Obama spent 20 months carefully negotiating and crafting the Iran deal. Trump, who has the attention span of a 3 year old, has his VP and son-in-law work one long day on it, and then gets mad that it can’t be fixed quickly.

Trump, who has unsuccessfully sought to force Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, now says he will enforce a naval blockade of the strait in an effort to raise pressure on Tehran after failed peace talks. @tylerpager.bsky.social www.nytimes.com/live/2026/04...

Today, Hungarians are voting. These elections loom large the world over. Viktor Orbán is a central figure in the international far right and his loss would be blow to familiar figures like JD Vance and Donald Trump, who are his pupils. snyder.substack.com/p/the-hungar...

The past terrifying week has caused me to wonder: How the hell did we get here? And how do we change course? Some thoughts... https://robertreich.substack.com/p/sunday-thought-how-the-hell-did-we

CARNEY: “.. Many of our former strengths — which rested on our close ties with the United States — have become our weaknesses.” 🇨🇦

The Dream Team failed. Total shock. We sent two of our most mediocre real estate developers and a fraud. Who could’ve guessed this outcome?

Started out with a bankroll from Daddy. Multiple business bankruptcies. How anyone ever thought he could run our country is still beyond me.

Vance strikes again.

Useful reminder from @sulliview.bsky.social that a key reason Trump picked Hegseth was because more independent Pentagon leaders played a key role in restraining him during his first term, and he wasn't going to make that mistake again. The consequences are dire: www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

None of these would be valid. No amount of exaggeration about the pardon power can overcome the express mandate to the President in Art II, Sec 3: "He shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed." He can't pardon people for breaking the law on his behalf. Contrary arguments are invalid.

In honor of Vance's visit to Hungary, where he will campaign for Viktor Orban, I am reposting my article from last year. I argued that Orban's Hungary is one of the poorest countries, and certainly the most corrupt and least free country, in the entire EU. www.theatlantic.com/magazine/arc...

OOOF, all of the wage growth over the last year erased in one month

We fought and lost a war in Iran so that both the Iranians and the Russians could make far more money from oil—the Iranians from tolls, the Russians from higher prices and the end of sanctions. That isn’t just strategic defeat; it’s self-destructive foolishness at a level unknown to military history

Essential point, and it only gets more intense with time, such that a handful are oligarchs and the rest basically hopeless.

Join @maya4rights.bsky.social and me on Substack, Saturday at 11a ET as we talk Trump’s voter suppression, criminalizing protest, and what’s being done to stop it. @lincolnsquare.media