Sixteen years of sovereign strongman theater—-the anti-Soros posters, the border wire, the Brussels conspiracies…and then leaked calls showing Orbán colluding with the very foreign powers he’d built his entire brand on fighting. The big lie wasn’t just exposed. It was his own voice doing the exposing.
What came after was just counting votes. And the count included JD Vance, who flew to Budapest for two days right before the election to bless the regime, and may have helped tip it the other way.
The illiberal international showed up to save Orbán and became part of the exposure.
Sometimes the best opposition research is just letting your allies walk through the door.
If it can happen in Budapest, the template exists.
Orbán’s allies: Vance, Trump, the illiberal international. They walked through the door to endorse him and ended up being part of what voters were rejecting.
Wow, I’m looking forward to your Hungary specific Kleptocracy Tracker. And it surely will be interesting to see what’s revealed about JD Vance. As always, thanks for your work! And, as always, I hope you’re getting some rest. According to my YouTube feed/silo you have been very busy! It’s good work, though.
It was an amazing win for the new Hungarian PM. I loved his winning speech in which he stated that the first thing he would be doing is head to Poland to restore the 1000 year close relationship the countries have shared. Gave me goose bumps. It was due to the Hungarians that so many Polish soldiers, including the legendary tank commander General Stanislaw Marczek, were able to escape Poland in September and October 1939 and make it to France and then the UK to continue the fight. I had goosebumps reading the PM's vow to head first to Poland and then to Brussels. There are at least two PiS politician's who have been hiding in Hungary that might soon find themselves back in Polish court rooms ;-)
corruption tracker. graft tracker. There is not the emphasis on trump regime corruption in MSM we here would like to see. Maybe that is less important than it used to be. ? I had not thought about Tizla might be able to shed more light on Trump-Orban skullduggery. That would be sweet.
Between our beautiful Artemis II crew splashing splashing down safely and this extraordinary result I’ve been weeping an awful lot for an adult human recently.
“Orbán received visits or verbal support from Donald Trump, J. D. Vance, Benjamin Netanyahu, Marine Le Pen…”. Frankly if I were planning a wedding and received messages of support from those 4 people - I would cancel the wedding, apologise to the bride’s family and change my name. Canada, Australia and now Hungary - Trump’s brand of MAGA madness doesn’t travel well.
But perhaps a deeper truth is that Trump is not a nationalist. Or an isolationist. Or Know Nothing Nativist from the mid 19C. He is just a charlatan who got very lucky. Twice.
Forbes is reporting that the “Trump Family”, which makes it sound like a New Jersey mob family, has lost $1 billion on a huge Bitcoin bet that went badly wrong. The blatant corruption of Trump, combined with a 40 year track record of stupidity and bankruptcies, mean few in other countries want anything to do with MAGA.
Putin, Trump and Netanyahu stand apart as an unsavoury group of failed leaders who wage war to attempt to stay in office and avoid prison. How many Russian soldiers have been sent to their deaths by Putin? How many innocent civilians in Lebanon or Palestine have died to keep Netanyahu in office? How many foreign misadventures can an insecure Trump involve the US in. These men are to be pitied, but they can only harm their countries.
Amazed that you are not more seized with the horror of the IRCG, and utterly flaccid and contemptible respond so far of the Western democracies other than the US and Israel.
The IRCG can neither have nuclear weapons or control the Strait of Hormuz.
Simply appeasing is untenable. And that is their basic response, as horrific in 2026 as it was in 1938.
The IRCG will further devastate the lives of Iranians to preserve thier hold on power.
Only a fool would expect to be able to negotiate with them on any reasonable basis.
The IRCG represents only degradation of the Iranian people. Does anyone dispute that?
At least, Orban acceded to an election and an election result.
It would infinitely better if the West accepted the inescapable necessity of IRCG annihilation.
And further work to compel China to align with the West than likes of the IRCG.
The 1938 analogy has been doing a lot of heavy lifting for a long time. Iran is not Nazi Germany. The IRGC does not have an expeditionary army marching across borders. What it has is asymmetric reach, proxy networks, and a population that has already shown, repeatedly, that it wants the regime gone. “IRGC annihilation” isn’t a strategy. It’s a wish. The question is what happens the morning after, and this comment has no answer for that because no one calling for annihilation ever does.
We always want the world to present us with a clean enemy and a clean solution. It never does.
Sixteen years of sovereign strongman theater—-the anti-Soros posters, the border wire, the Brussels conspiracies…and then leaked calls showing Orbán colluding with the very foreign powers he’d built his entire brand on fighting. The big lie wasn’t just exposed. It was his own voice doing the exposing.
What came after was just counting votes. And the count included JD Vance, who flew to Budapest for two days right before the election to bless the regime, and may have helped tip it the other way.
The illiberal international showed up to save Orbán and became part of the exposure.
Sometimes the best opposition research is just letting your allies walk through the door.
If it can happen in Budapest, the template exists.
—Johan🐌
Hi Johan. Well said. Just one thing. Do you mean “allowing *their* allies”? (Maybe I’m just reading it wrong.)
Fair catch.
Orbán’s allies: Vance, Trump, the illiberal international. They walked through the door to endorse him and ended up being part of what voters were rejecting.
Thanks!
You might enjoy Ann Telnaes’ political cartoon from today. https://anntelnaes.substack.com/p/viktor-orban-loses-election?r=5k9s3t&utm_medium=ios
Thank you, yes!
Orbán lost, and his American admirers WILL TOO!
It takes motivated voters who get up off their butts and go to the polls. These parasites can be defeated, but it takes work.
Vote in every election and never, ever vote for a US republican.
Vive la Hungary!
Slava Ukraini!
Long live a free USA!!
Wow, I’m looking forward to your Hungary specific Kleptocracy Tracker. And it surely will be interesting to see what’s revealed about JD Vance. As always, thanks for your work! And, as always, I hope you’re getting some rest. According to my YouTube feed/silo you have been very busy! It’s good work, though.
Anne applebaum standing up against the autocrats for democracy
"Ill liberal" a euphemism for oligarchic fascism? Or just the fascist description of anyone who opposes them?
Anyway, dump the BS euphemistic nonsense and let's stay real: They're autocrat fascist scum.
And now onward to aiding Ukraine and ending Putin.
It was an amazing win for the new Hungarian PM. I loved his winning speech in which he stated that the first thing he would be doing is head to Poland to restore the 1000 year close relationship the countries have shared. Gave me goose bumps. It was due to the Hungarians that so many Polish soldiers, including the legendary tank commander General Stanislaw Marczek, were able to escape Poland in September and October 1939 and make it to France and then the UK to continue the fight. I had goosebumps reading the PM's vow to head first to Poland and then to Brussels. There are at least two PiS politician's who have been hiding in Hungary that might soon find themselves back in Polish court rooms ;-)
corruption tracker. graft tracker. There is not the emphasis on trump regime corruption in MSM we here would like to see. Maybe that is less important than it used to be. ? I had not thought about Tizla might be able to shed more light on Trump-Orban skullduggery. That would be sweet.
Between our beautiful Artemis II crew splashing splashing down safely and this extraordinary result I’ve been weeping an awful lot for an adult human recently.
This is great stuff. Thanks for posting it.
“Orbán received visits or verbal support from Donald Trump, J. D. Vance, Benjamin Netanyahu, Marine Le Pen…”. Frankly if I were planning a wedding and received messages of support from those 4 people - I would cancel the wedding, apologise to the bride’s family and change my name. Canada, Australia and now Hungary - Trump’s brand of MAGA madness doesn’t travel well.
But perhaps a deeper truth is that Trump is not a nationalist. Or an isolationist. Or Know Nothing Nativist from the mid 19C. He is just a charlatan who got very lucky. Twice.
Forbes is reporting that the “Trump Family”, which makes it sound like a New Jersey mob family, has lost $1 billion on a huge Bitcoin bet that went badly wrong. The blatant corruption of Trump, combined with a 40 year track record of stupidity and bankruptcies, mean few in other countries want anything to do with MAGA.
Putin, Trump and Netanyahu stand apart as an unsavoury group of failed leaders who wage war to attempt to stay in office and avoid prison. How many Russian soldiers have been sent to their deaths by Putin? How many innocent civilians in Lebanon or Palestine have died to keep Netanyahu in office? How many foreign misadventures can an insecure Trump involve the US in. These men are to be pitied, but they can only harm their countries.
Can’t wait for the Kleptocracy Tracker… :-)
JD’s toxic vibes was just the icing on the Orban corruption/oppression cake. Spectacular win for Hungary’s future!!
We the people let’s go!!
Amazed that you are not more seized with the horror of the IRCG, and utterly flaccid and contemptible respond so far of the Western democracies other than the US and Israel.
The IRCG can neither have nuclear weapons or control the Strait of Hormuz.
Simply appeasing is untenable. And that is their basic response, as horrific in 2026 as it was in 1938.
The IRCG will further devastate the lives of Iranians to preserve thier hold on power.
Only a fool would expect to be able to negotiate with them on any reasonable basis.
The IRCG represents only degradation of the Iranian people. Does anyone dispute that?
At least, Orban acceded to an election and an election result.
It would infinitely better if the West accepted the inescapable necessity of IRCG annihilation.
And further work to compel China to align with the West than likes of the IRCG.
The 1938 analogy has been doing a lot of heavy lifting for a long time. Iran is not Nazi Germany. The IRGC does not have an expeditionary army marching across borders. What it has is asymmetric reach, proxy networks, and a population that has already shown, repeatedly, that it wants the regime gone. “IRGC annihilation” isn’t a strategy. It’s a wish. The question is what happens the morning after, and this comment has no answer for that because no one calling for annihilation ever does.
We always want the world to present us with a clean enemy and a clean solution. It never does.
Three words - proxies, drones and missiles.
Annihilation or the tangible expectation of it, is all they understand.
The rule of Ayatollahs has been terrible for Iran and they’re unpopular. But they’re also religious fanatics who won’t surrender without a huge fight.
I do not think you could rid of them without a ground invasion. I don’t the American people are up for that.
Trump says he’s now blockading them. We’ll see what happens.
I don’t think other countries have the naval assets to do much here.
This video is enlightening. (“What’s going on with shipping?”)
https://youtu.be/xddTUc14iOw?si=vdFO9jpmP3H9fLYd
How regligiously fanatic is the IRCG really?
Or are they just basic hoodlums that they derived wealth and privilege by aligning with Ayatollahs?
Not all are Sulemeini clones.
Trump has to make the blockade real , including Chinese bound oil.
It’s possible that IRGC is becoming less religious but I’ll need some evidence, not just a hopeful maybe.