brilliant -- Morning Joe put together clips of Pete Hegseth reciting a fake Bible quote from Pulp Fiction, along with the Samuel L. Jackson scene from the movie

Good.

Nick Cave: ‘I don’t know where I would be if my son hadn’t died. Grief turns you into a person. Before, I was incomplete’ The Australian singer has lost two children and many friends and family members in recent years. But he has emerged stronger. He expresses this resilience in an album full of hope, titled ‘Wild God’

One of the better Nick Cave interviews, from a couple years back.
english.elpais.com/culture/2024...

Viktor Orbán is gone. What does his fall mean for Europe? Our panel responds Hungary’s return to democracy will be hard. But the impact of Péter Magyar’s decisive victory could be profound, inside the country and beyond

A round-up of perspectives that sound a lot like what could/would happen here, when the MAGA cancer finally dissolves.
www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Democrats: To Win America Back, Confront Trump's and the GOP's Naked Corruption From Hungary to Ukraine to America, one message wins: expose the rigged system and mobilize voters to defeat it…

Excellent summary, as usual.
open.substack.com/pub/thomhart...

Geriatric Gen X: A Manifesto Lisa Borders gives name to a sub-demographic.

"Being kicked out of Gen X and drifting generation-less for years is possibly the most Gen X thing ever."

open.substack.com/pub/oldster/...

Flowers Bloom on Soldiers' Graves: Lessons in Power and Consequence What is power? It is at its most essential the ability to influence an outcome on any or all scales, to protect one's own at a minimum and to influence, even control others at a maximum. Violence is c...

“The lesson flowers offer ... when you treat others well, when you meet their needs, you can enter into relationships that serve you as well as them. When you use violence or otherwise exploit and coerce to get what you want, you create adversaries.”
www.meditationsinanemergency.com/flowers-bloo...

Certain writers (*cough* NYT Opinion *cough*) overread the durability of illiberal nationalism and scoffed at pro-democracy appeals, but they only listened to each other, never allowing alternate opinions into their elite bubble. That left them unable to grasp everything from Hungary to Minneapolis.

You know who else was weak on crime? JESUS. Famously advised people who have been assaulted to “turn the other cheek.” Big-time loser.

Charlie Chaplin - Final Speech from The Great Dictator YouTube video by Charlie Chaplin

To those under autocratic rule who have fought and voted against it: Much of Chaplin’s final speech in “The Great Dictator” on dictatorships rings true today. “…brutes have risen to power, but they lie, they do not fulfill their promise, they never will…”

Congratulations on uniting Hungary!

a while ago, Bolsonaro was fearing for his imprisonment he sneaked into the Hungary Embassy near his home and spent a couple of days there hiding.

so this has sweet taste to us in Brazil.

🔥This is an incredible result!

A quick concession is of course in Hungary’s best interests.

If Magyar also has a 2/3 majority (as looks likely) then he’ll have full control to remove Fidesz corruption.

Finally- it’s a humiliation for Trump & Putin - and a boost for Ukraine.

JD Vance is America’s Liz Truss. She killed the Queen. He killed the Pope and now, metaphorically, Viktor Orbán.

Thread, especially the speech.

Orban consolidated power by making the electoral system less proportional and gerrymandering districts of very unequal sizes.

That gave Orban supermajorities when the opposition was divided and less popular—but it turned an opposition landslide into a supermajority that can now dismantle the regime

Opposition leader Péter Magyar at a rally.

Orbán's electoral crushing is a far greater achievement than most people outside Hungary realise.

He systemically consolidated power for 16 years, fixed the electoral map, abused govt power for political purposes & censored media.

The hurdles that Hungarians overcame for this moment were immense.

Why an Orbán loss would be a huge win for the EU - and disastrous for Putin and MAGA It's hard to understate how much vast geopolitics hinges on an election in a country with a population of only 9.6M

A pleasant read. 👇
open.substack.com/pub/mikegals...

🤞

The Hungarian people wisely refused to listen to these grifting scumbags.

The global far-right goes down in Hungary.

ORBÁN CONCEDED

Hungary election live: Polls in Hungary close in tightly fought election after 16 years under Viktor Orbán Prime minister has been trailing in the polls to Péter Magyar in race that could have repercussions for Europe, the US and Russia

GUARDIAN: "Viktor Orbán is now speaking at Fidesz’s election night and he says the election result is “clear” as he concedes defeat." www.theguardian.com/world/live/2...

Kogura's Been a Pillar of San José’s Japantown for a Century. Its Owner Sees His Community Eroding | KQED San José’s Japantown reveals the Bay Area housing crisis, where high costs and widening inequality are forcing longtime residents to move and reshaping neighborhoods.

Want to know how miserable it is to live here? Well, read this.
www.kqed.org/news/1207861...

“Ramble On” - Robert Plant with Saving Grace (LIVE on The Late Show) YouTube video by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert

Robert Plant the other night. 77 years old.
youtube.com/watch?v=Ca3V...

When First Lady Michelle Obama said kids should eat healthy foods, Republicans loudly DENOUNCED her.

But when First Lady Melania Trump lies about not being friends with a notorious sex trafficker, Republicans look the other way.

They are always less concerned with what's said than who said it.

“Suppression of political speech is the mark of an autocracy, not a democracy—as the Framers recognized when they drafted the First Amendment.”

A federal judge spits fire into a ruling protecting the Pentagon press corps from SecDef’s censorship.

Full ruling ecf.dcd.uscourts.gov/cgi-bin/show...

One of the most brazenly corrupt events in history will take place tomorrow when Jared Kushner represents the U.S. in critical negotiations with Iran to end the war while he accepts millions in fees (and billions in investments) from the Saudi gov’t which has been lobbying Trump to continue the war

LARRY ITLIONG AND THE GREAT DELANO GRAPE STRIKE LARRY ITLIONG AND THE GREAT DELANO GRAPE STRIKE By David Bacon American Community Media, 4-8-26 https://americancommunitymedia.org/immigrati...

As usual, amazing images and words from David Bacon. This time, about Larry Itliong and the Filipinos' role in the farm workers movement.
davidbaconrealitycheck.blogspot.com/2026/04/larr...

The Hungarian election is about Russian oligarchy and its support of the international far right. That’s why Vance is there. He is a node in that network.

We Punched Iran. And Then We Ran. The two-week ceasefire from Chamberlain's dreams

A good read.
open.substack.com/pub/adamkinz...