“There will be many post-mortems on the demise of the Orbán regime. The stunning victory of Hungary’s opposition was delivered by an electoral surge so large that it swamped the anti-democratic breakwaters the regime had erected to maintain its grip on power. A full analysis of why Hungarians repudiated Orbán will surely contain many details unique to Hungary. However, it’s also clear that there were three main factors that led to Orbán’s overthrow. And understanding these factors is important if Americans are to defeat Trump’s MAGA regime.” (04/15/26)
Source: Antiwar.com
by Jeffrey D Sachs & Sybil Fares
“To make lasting peace in the Middle East, the US must end its blank check to Israel’s perpetual wars and join with the rest of the world to force Israel to live within its internationally recognized borders.” (04/15/26)
“Bipartisan agreement on Capitol Hill is rare these days. But it has been in evidence in recent weeks among a handful of congresswomen concerned about allegations of sexual misconduct by a few House members. They have called for Congress to expel three representatives and to publicly release records of its recent investigations (a motion voted down in early March). ‘Women deserve to be safe,’ Republican Rep. Nancy Mace of South Carolina said last month. ‘And the American people deserve to know’ when elected officials are ‘abusing power instead of serving their constituent.’ On Monday, two House members announced they would step down – Democrat Eric Swalwell of California, who denies allegations of sexual assault by a former staff member and three other women, and Republican Tony Gonzales of Texas, who has admitted to an affair with an aide.” (04/14/26)
“In 2024, Trump urged Congress to ‘KILL FISA.’ With a vote upcoming this week, he now demands its renewal with no limits or safeguards, and he has ample Democratic support.” (04/15/26)
“The reality that the U.S. is an empire is now a commonplace, a terminology widely used across the political spectrum. A declining empire, perhaps, but a globe-spanning hegemon nonetheless. Yet many U.S. of Americans have assumed it is overall still a force for good in the world. That illusion has been shattered in recent years, first by the complicity in Israel’s genocide of Gaza, then by the preemptive U.S.-Israel war against Iran, a clear violation of international law. The evils of empire are out in the open now.” (04/15/26)
“The blockades are bad but consider them points of leverage for an actual negotiation. Here is what a positive outcome — for both sides — might look like.” (04/15/26)
“Over the last decade or so, Hungary became for the new right what Sweden or Cuba were to the old left. For generations, various American leftists loved to cite the Cuban model as better than ours when it came to health care or education. Some would even make wild claims about freedom under Fidel Castro’s dictatorship. … President Trump, Tucker Carlson, and J.D. Vance (most recently while campaigning for Orbán) have all lavished praise on Hungary. Patrick Deneen, a leading new-right intellectual, saw in Orbán’s Hungary ‘a model of a form of opposition to contemporary liberalism that says, ‘There’s a way in which the state and the political order can be oriented to the positive promotion of conservative policies.’’ … Orbánism is not a new model, or ‘wave of the future.’ It was a tide of the past. And it’s good news that it’s receding.” (04/15/26)
“A property deed should mean ownership, not a renewable lease from the government. Yet that is what property taxes amount to in practice. A family can earn the income, buy the home, pay off the mortgage, maintain and improve the property, and still owe the government every year merely to retain possession of it. Miss enough payments, and the state can seize the property. That may be common. It is not normal in any morally serious sense.” (04/15/26)
“On the evening of September 11, 2025, a user called zealous_monkey_55095 told the members of one of his Discord chats that he had ‘bad news.’ ‘It was me at UVU yesterday. Im sorry for all of this. im surrendering through a sheriff friend in a few moments. thanks for all the good times and laughs, you’ve all been so amazing. thank you all for everything.’ Exactly five minutes later, at 8:02 p.m., former Washington County sheriff Nate Brooksby recalled a few days later in a press conference, he received a phone call from an old colleague, a former Washington County deputy sheriff. ‘His voice is kinda shaky so my first thought is, who died?’ Brooksby said. ‘He says, hey I know who Charlie Kirk’s shooter is.'” (04/15/26)
