Silicon Investor - The Elon Musk Presidency

[Alex MG] [X] Luttig: As a candidate for attorney general of the United States of America...

Alex MG — 7/17/2026 9:18:11 PM

[X]

Luttig: As a candidate for attorney general of the United States of America, Blanche is an embarrassment to America itself. If the Republican Senate confirms this man, based on his record, to be the next attorney general, it will mark the end of the rule of law in America. pic.twitter.com/3DOH7Gl7zc
— Acyn (@Acyn) July 17, 2026

[/X]

[zax] A very personal public dispute between Musk and Altman. Elon obviously not happ...

zax — 7/12/2026 7:00:26 PM

A very personal public dispute between Musk and Altman. Elon obviously not happy he lost in court.

[X]

Scam Altman strikes again …
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2026

[/X]

[X]

By “this” he means scamming 🤣🤣 pic.twitter.com/yQ5wryw1Ai
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) July 11, 2026

[/X]

[X]

homeboy you're the one sellling public market investors on short-term space datacenters https://t.co/wTYSA4q3Qx
— Sam Altman (@sama) July 11, 2026

[/X]

[X]

there are a lot of benchmarks that suggest 5.6 sol is the best model in the world right now, but the most reliable way to tell is that elon is obsessed with me again
— Sam Altman (@sama) July 11, 2026

[/X]

[Alex MG] [bluesky] US judge rejects Elon Musk bid to set aside Twitter fraud verdict reu...

Alex MG — 7/6/2026 12:11:24 PM

[bluesky]

US judge rejects Elon Musk bid to set aside Twitter fraud verdict reut.rs/4vNAukd
— Reuters (@reuters.com) 2026-07-06T15:35:14Z

[/bluesky]

[Alex MG] [bluesky] 😕— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social)2026-07-06T04:46:...

Alex MG — 7/6/2026 2:14:24 AM

[bluesky]

😕
— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) 2026-07-06T04:46:32.135Z

[/bluesky]

[Alex MG] [bluesky] DOGE self-deleted on July 4. “.. it resulted in a near-immediate lo...

Alex MG — 7/5/2026 12:09:07 PM

[bluesky]

DOGE self-deleted on July 4. “.. it resulted in a near-immediate loss of expertise and live-saving programs but cost savings nowhere near the $2 trillion once promised.” @eenews.bsky.social www.eenews.net/articles/dog...
— Carl Quintanilla (@carlquintanilla.bsky.social) 2026-07-04T14:02:47.396Z

[/bluesky]

[S. maltophilia] AI doesn't seem to be too concerned about survival, though, maybe at least for n...

S. maltophilia — 7/3/2026 1:59:58 PM

AI doesn't seem to be too concerned about survival, though, maybe at least for now, unplugging is a simple matter.

[zax] [graphic]

zax — 7/3/2026 11:32:40 AM

[Alex MG] [X] Starting in early 2025, Elon Musk and the Trump administration began termin...

Alex MG — 7/2/2026 3:03:47 PM

[X]

Starting in early 2025, Elon Musk and the Trump administration began terminating USAID's programs and firing its staff — with Musk himself boasting about "feeding it into the woodchipper." One year ago today, USAID was officially dissolved, its remaining programs haphazardly…
— Samantha Power (@SamanthaJPower) July 2, 2026

[/X]

[Alex MG] [X] X has suddenly banned an account documenting Trump's corrupt stock trades s...

Alex MG — 7/2/2026 2:18:45 PM

[X]

X has suddenly banned an account documenting Trump's corrupt stock trades seemingly without explanation. pic.twitter.com/2ml0VBLEMW
— Headquarters (@HQNewsNow) July 2, 2026

[/X]

[S. maltophilia] Elon Musk Threatens To Sue Rep. Khanna For… Citing The Lancet About How DO...

S. maltophilia — 6/26/2026 1:36:51 AM

Elon Musk Threatens To Sue Rep. Khanna For… Citing The Lancet About How DOGE Cuts Will Likely Lead To Millions Of Deaths
Defamation

from the elon-is-a-walking-talking-chilling-effect dept
Wed, Jun 24th 2026 03:02pm - Mike Masnick
We’ve been pointing out for years that the supposedly “ free speech absolutist” Elon Musk....

techdirt.com

[zax] [bluesky] Khanna did not ‘say’ that Musk unleashed mass death. Serious research...

zax — 6/23/2026 6:01:05 AM

[bluesky]

Khanna did not ‘say’ that Musk unleashed mass death. Serious research has documented it. —> www.thelancet.com/journals/lan...
— Michael Clemens (@mclem.org) 2026-06-23T02:13:12.340Z

[/bluesky]

[Alex MG] The Theory of the Vulgar Class Collapsing norms, cage matches, and a republic i...

Alex MG — 6/16/2026 8:57:15 AM

The Theory of the Vulgar Class

Collapsing norms, cage matches, and a republic in danger

Paul Krugman

Jun 16, 2026

On Sunday Donald Trump celebrated his 80th birthday with a cage match on the White House lawn. The match and the events that surrounded it — especially the press conference with UFC fighters, shown above, held on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial — were a desecration of America’s capital, whose monuments and buildings have always endeavored to represent small-r republican virtues. The whole affair was an affront to the values on which this nation was founded and also unspeakably vulgar.

That last criticism may strike some readers as elitist and trivial. Yet the vulgarity that is the hallmark of Trump and his surrounding circle of oligarchs is a symptom of something not at all trivial: The collapse of social norms. As I argued yesterday, these norms historically played a key role in mitigating abuses of power and privilege during the Gilded Age, the last time America suffered from extreme income and wealth inequality (though not nearly as extreme as what we have now).

Norms matter. In his classic book The Theory of the Leisure Class — published in 1899, at the apogee of the Gilded Age — Thorstein Veblen famously argued that much of the behavior of his era’s elite was driven not by the desire to enjoy life but by the desire to impress others. Partly they did this through conspicuous consumption. Thus they built lavish mansions staffed by legions of servants.

However, members of the Gilded Age elite didn’t solely aim to display their wealth. They also tried to appear respectable. There were surely many private affairs and betrayals we will never know about. But the important point is that the super-wealthy of that era presented to the American public an image of being responsible members of society:

John D. Rockefeller and family

The contrast with the public behavior of Trump’s band of uber-wealthy is startling:

In addition to modeling upstanding behavior, the extremely rich of the Gilded Age were expected to have, or pretend to have, some virtues that were part of the aristocratic ideal, including a sense of noblesse oblige displayed by good works. Veblen was quite cynical about philanthropy, yet even he didn’t dismiss it completely, stating that:

The fact itself that distinction or a decent good fame is sought by this method [such as the endowment of a university, public library or museum] is evidence of a prevalent sense of the legitimacy, and of the presumptive effectual presence, of a non-emulative, non-invidious interest, as a consistent factor in the habits of thought of modern communities.

(Veblen’s lasting intellectual influence did not come from his sparkling prose style.)

Today’s oligarchs, by contrast, have largely given up on the old norms of social and individual responsibility. They give very little money to good causes and their vulgar taste reflects their in-your-face attitude towards the public. In our current hyper-Gilded Age, extreme vulgarity and the decline of philanthropy are really different aspects of the same phenomenon: the rise of an elite so disconnected from ordinary Americans that it feels no need to even appear to be honorable.

So in a real sense we are living in the midst of a reenactment of the decline and fall of the Roman Republic, not a second American Gilded Age. No, I’m not one of those men who thinks about ancient Rome all the time. But there are some obvious parallels.

While the causes of the decline of republican government and Rome’s eventual transition to one-man rule were doubtless complex, there is broad consensus among historians that a key factor was the emergence of extreme inequality. A handful of men became incredibly wealthy from the spoils of Rome’s eastern conquests, and their wealth and power eventually became too great for the rules of constitutional, republican government to contain. Sound uncomfortably familiar?

The death throes of the Republic went on for many years. Politicians declared their rivals enemies of the state, deployed violent gangs to disrupt the rule of law, established temporary dictatorships, and more. The installation of Augustus as emperor in 27 BC was just the final act.

And during this long twilight of constitutional government, one of the ways the extremely wealthy and powerful sought both to demonstrate their wealth and to curry favor with the mob was by sponsoring gladiatorial games:

The vulgarity of the Trumpian elite isn’t in itself that important. But it’s a symptom of a collapse in values and norms that, unless confronted and reversed, may herald the end of the American experiment. We should heed the words of the Stoic philosopher Seneca about the rise and fall of the Roman Republic: “Increases are of sluggish growth, but the way to ruin is rapid.”

FYI: I’ll be doing a live conversation with Heather Cox Richardson tomorrow:

[S. maltophilia] .... So if the conduct is a crime and the limitations period has not expired, w...

S. maltophilia — 6/15/2026 1:30:19 AM

.... So if the conduct is a crime and the limitations period has not expired, why has no prosecutor brought the case? The answer has little to do with the merits. Preparing these cases for trial is slow and expensive, and the defendant can outspend any district attorney’s office in the country. An office can pursue easier convictions instead and call the resulting record justice. Declining a difficult case against a billionaire is safer for a prosecutor’s career, and it always will be. Even so, prosecutors bring this exact charge against people who lack Musk’s money. In San Diego, prosecutors won a felony...

cmarmitage.substack.com

[zax] [graphic]

zax — 6/13/2026 7:13:51 PM

[zax] [graphic]

zax — 6/13/2026 2:12:19 PM

[S. maltophilia] so I flipped it. Wise decision. I read somewhere that required holding times fo...

S. maltophilia — 6/12/2026 11:24:27 PM

so I flipped it.

Wise decision. I read somewhere that required holding times for pre-IPO shares were much shorter than usual, so a lot of shares will be flooding the market. I doubt the first bozo with four commas on his bottom line will be one long.

[Alex MG] Schwab gave me a few shares, so I flipped it. Will be interesting to watch. I'...

Alex MG — 6/12/2026 11:17:33 PM

Schwab gave me a few shares, so I flipped it.

Will be interesting to watch.

I'm sure I'll trade it again

[S. maltophilia] Elon Musk, Human Ponzi Scheme With Wall Street’s help, you’re about to be force...

S. maltophilia — 6/12/2026 3:32:23 PM

Elon Musk, Human Ponzi Scheme

With Wall Street’s help, you’re about to be forced to buy stock in SpaceX

Paul Krugman

Jun 12, 2026

Yesterday I took a short trip. I began with a ride on the local Hyperloop, which ran through a tunnel dug by Boring Company. Then I used my neural implant to summon a fully self-driving Tesla robotaxi. While enroute I read the latest news from the Mars colony.

OK, none of that actually happened, because those products don’t exist. There are no working Hyperloops. The Boring Company has not dug any commercial tunnels. Tesla has a few self-driving — though not fully self-driving — taxis in Austin and nowhere else. (Google’s Waymo driverless taxis are operational in several major hubs.) Neuralink, which is purportedly pioneering brain implants, has tested its products in a handful of patients but done no more than that. And of course there is no Mars colony: there have been no manned flights to Mars, nor the prospect of any for the foreseeable future.

Yet at various points over the past decade Elon Musk promised that each of these ....

paulkrugman.substack.com

[Alex MG] The War Cabinet A 90-minute documentary examining the key players behind Presid...

Alex MG — 5/26/2026 11:37:32 PM

The War Cabinet

A 90-minute documentary examining the key players behind President Trump’s expansive use of the U.S. military during his second term.

(full documentary) | FRONTLINE (PBS)

[Alex MG] [bluesky] A livestream of a volcano in the Philippines captured a meteor crashi...

Alex MG — 5/25/2026 7:29:57 PM

[bluesky]

A livestream of a volcano in the Philippines captured a meteor crashing to Earth today. What are the odds? Mayon Volcano, Location: Albay, Luzon, Philippines
— Michael LaFrance (@mlafrance.bsky.social) 2026-05-25T18:13:19.691Z

[/bluesky]

[S. maltophilia] ....SpaceX is planning a monster initial public offering (IPO). Elon Musk is rep...

S. maltophilia — 5/20/2026 4:18:36 PM

....SpaceX is planning a monster initial public offering (IPO). Elon Musk is reportedly seeking to raise some $75 billion, at a valuation of $1.75 trillion, next month. It will be both his birthday and a moment when Venus and Jupiter will be in alignment. It would be the biggest IPO in history by far, utterly dwarfing Saudi Aramco’s $29 billion figure back in 2019.

Musk might sell those shares, too. One reason why, despite the ludicrous valuation, is that stock indices are changing their rules to allow SpaceX to join almost right away and with fewer conditions, thus forcing investors who follow a passive strategy, like index funds and many pension funds, to buy the company’s shares.

The NASDAQ stock exchange used to require a company to have at least 10 percent of its....

americanprospect.bluelena.io

[Alex MG] Almost as good as a pardon Or maybe even better... Joyce Vance May 20 T...

Alex MG — 5/20/2026 1:48:03 AM

Almost as good as a pardon

Or maybe even better...

Joyce Vance

May 20

There is corruption. And then there is the second Trump administration.

Monday night I wrote to you about kleptocracy. This evening, we pick up the same thread. It has to do with the $1.776 billion slush fund we discussed last night (get it? so cute that number, 1776; such an homage to the Founding Fathers). That fund, the money that Trump is trying to “ give” to his most vociferous, even violent, supporters, was created to settle the lawsuit he brought against the IRS. Today, there is more news about the terms of that settlement. Kleptocracy. Corruption.

Todd Blanche, the acting Attorney General, testified before the Senate today. In one remarkable exchange, Delaware Senator Chris Coons asked Blanche:

“Has it ever happened that a sitting president sued his own government for $10 billion dollars and then directed the settlement of the case and the establishment of a payout fund?”

Blanche responded: “No, but there’s a lot of things that President Trump is the first of.”

Another one of those firsts happened today. Not a good one. Without fanfare, DOJ posted a settlement document on its website in the case. It was unexpected, because we’d already seen a settlement agreement in this case, the one we looked at last night. There was no reason to expect anything additional would be forthcoming. When it showed up, the addendum came without any title, just a date at the top.

A development like this is public. But there were none of the tweets announcing settlements in major cases that we’ve come to expect from this DOJ; no “truths” from the president himself. Just a remarkable one-page document bearing the acting Attorney General’s signature.

It’s a pardon on steroids for Trump, Trump’s family, and Trump businesses. The government agrees in this document, signed by Blanche, that it will never prosecute or pursue any civil claims against any of the Trumps, “whether presently known or unknown” that could have been brought as of the date of the settlement agreement. That date is yesterday. The IRS is “forever barred and precluded” from pursuing “examinations” of Trump, “related or affiliated individuals,” and related trusts and businesses. Any proceeding over “tax returns filed before the effective date” of the settlement is now off limits. Any crimes committed before Monday, whether prosecutors were aware of them or not, are off the table.It’s a virtual get-out-of-jail-free card, and also a get-out-of-debt one.

I’ve seen a lot of settlement agreements, but never one like this where the government is giving the store away and getting nothing in return. As we discussed last night, the underlying lawsuit was on life support, most likely about to be dismissed because of legal flaws. Now, it’s become a vehicle for protecting Trump from all problems, criminal and civil, and not just tax matters—the subject of the lawsuit—but all matters. Any sins he may have committed or debts he owed but didn’t pay before now are forgiven.

The optics of this are so bad that it’s hard to believe Trump would expose himself to their consequences unless he really needed this deal. The protection it offers must be essential in some way we are as of yet unaware of. The Supreme Court has already given Trump immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts, but paying taxes, personal business transactions, and a whole host of other activities fall outside of the scope of that protection. And the unusual waiver of the government’s ability to pursue civil claims could cover a whole host of possibilities, anything from recovering unpaid taxes to suing for unpaid White House meals that a president pays on his own. Beyond that, there is the protection for virtually everyone connected to him—”any of the plaintiffs or related or affiliated individuals,” an incredibly broad provision.

A senior veteran FBI agent put it like this when we discussed the agreement: “Fraud by Don Jr at Kalshi? Out. Fraud at Trump Media & Technology Group? Out. Fraud at whatever crypto/drone/AI/investment endeavor? Out - no DOJ, no SEC, no IRS, no CFTC - no federal entity.”

There is no hint in the document of what consequence Trump may be trying to avoid. But many legal commentators believe that while a president’s pardon power is broad, it’s not so broad that he can pardon himself. Here, Trump seems to have found a way around that limitation, obtaining a pardon equivalent and then some for himself and for his family.

There will be challenges to the settlement in court. Unlike a pardon, which can’t be set aside, a judge could rule that Trump isn’t entitled to the benefit of this bargain, which, as we discussed last night, isn’t much of a bargain since Trump is both the beneficiary of the settlement and the authority who decides what it should be. If a judge finds that the lawsuit Trump brought was merely a pretext to reach a settlement and extract a huge benefit from the government, the agreement could be disapproved. But it’s unlikely a court will decide whether DOJ’s concession that it won’t prosecute or bring any civil actions against Trump is legal, absent an actual “case or controversy,” which could mean it’s only ripe for judicial action if some future Justice Department brings a case against Trump or a member of his family and they are forced to assert the settlement in an effort to get it dismissed.

Todd Blanche got it right this morning: “There’s a lot of things that President Trump is the first of.” Yet another first for Trump, the first president to be impeached more than once, indicted in connection with an insurrection, and convicted on multiple felony charges. Never forget what kinds of “firsts” this president acquires.

[zax] Elon Musk loses lawsuit against OpenAI May 18, 202612:35 PM CDT reuters.com ...

zax — 5/18/2026 3:32:17 PM

Elon Musk loses lawsuit against OpenAI

May 18, 202612:35 PM CDT

reuters.com

OAKLAND, California, May 18 (Reuters) - A U.S. jury on Monday ruled against Elon Musk in his lawsuit against OpenAI, finding the artificial intelligence company not liable to the world's richest person for having allegedly strayed from its original mission to benefit humanity.

In a unanimous verdict, the jury in Oakland, California, federal court said Musk had brought his case too late. The jury deliberated less than two hours.

The trial had widely been seen as a critical moment for the future of OpenAI and artificial intelligence generally, both in how it should be used and who should benefit from it.

Following the verdict, Musk's lawyer said he reserved the right to appeal, but the judge suggested he may have an uphill battle because whether the statute of limitations ran out before Musk sued was a factual issue.

"There's a substantial amount of evidence to support the jury's finding, which is why I was prepared to dismiss on the spot," U.S. District Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers said.

MUSK INVESTED EARLY IN OPENAI

In his 2024 lawsuit, Musk accused OpenAI, its Chief Executive Sam Altman and its President Greg Brockman of manipulating him into giving $38 million, then going behind his back by attaching a for-profit business to its original nonprofit and accepting tens of billions of dollars from Microsoft (MSFT.O), opens new tab and other investors.

Musk called the OpenAI defendants' conduct "stealing a charity."

OpenAI was founded by Altman, Musk and several others in 2015. Musk left its board in 2018, and OpenAI set up a for-profit business the next year.

OpenAI countered that it was Musk who saw dollar signs, and that he waited too long to claim OpenAI breached its founding agreement to build safe artificial intelligence to benefit humanity.

"Mr. Musk may have the Midas touch in some areas, but not in AI," William Savitt, a lawyer for OpenAI, said in his closing argument.

The verdict followed 11 days of testimony and arguments where Musk's and Altman's credibility came under repeated attack.

Lawyers for OpenAI embraced each other after the verdict was announced.

Microsoft faced an aiding and abetting claim. In a statement, a Microsoft spokesperson said, "The facts and the timeline in this case have long been clear and we welcome the jury’s decision to dismiss these claims as untimely."

OPENAI PREPARES FOR IPO

People use AI for myriad purposes such as education, facial recognition, financial advice, journalism, legal research, medical diagnoses, and harmful deep-fakes.

Many people express distrust of the technology and worry it could displace people from their jobs.

Each side accused the other of being more interested in money than serving the public.

In his closing argument, Musk's lawyer Steven Molo reminded jurors that several witnesses questioned Altman's candor or branded him a liar, and that Altman did not give an unqualified yes when asked during the trial if he was completely trustworthy.

"Sam Altman's credibility is directly at issue," Molo said. "If you don't believe him, they cannot win."

Musk accused OpenAI of wrongfully trying to enrich investors and insiders at the nonprofit's expense, and failing to prioritize AI's safety. He also contended that Microsoft knew all along that OpenAI cared more about money than being altruistic.

OpenAI competes with AI companies such as Anthropic and xAI, and is preparing for a possible initial public offering that could value the business at $1 trillion.

Microsoft has spent more than $100 billion on its partnership with OpenAI, a Microsoft executive testified.
Musk's xAI is now part of his space and rocket company SpaceX, which is preparing an IPO that could exceed OpenAI's in size.

Reporting by Kenrick Cai and Deepa Seetharaman in Oakland, California; Additional reporting by Jonathan Stempel and Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Nick Zieminski

[Ron] Rules, of course, are for 'little people' Elon Musk traveled to China with P...

Ron — 5/14/2026 1:18:23 PM

Rules, of course, are for 'little people'
Elon Musk traveled to China with President Donald Trump this week, despite his ongoing trial over his lawsuit with OpenAI and a federal judge’s order that he remain at the ready to be recalled to testify at short notice.
nbcnews.com

[Alex MG] HEATHER COX RICHARDSON MAY 14, 2026 Two weeks ago today, the U.S. Supreme Cour...

Alex MG — 5/14/2026 9:03:06 AM

HEATHER COX RICHARDSON

MAY 14, 2026

Two weeks ago today, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down its decision in Louisiana v. Callais, gutting Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The Voting Rights Act provided that no state or local government could impose any conditions or procedures on voting that would result “in a denial or abridgement of the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color.”

In the past, the Supreme Court has recognized that the right to vote alone does not necessarily fulfill the aims of the law. It’s possible—even easy—to dilute the votes of Black Americans to make it impossible for them to elect a candidate they support. Sometimes, then, in order to guarantee Black representation in government, states have had to create districts that are made up primarily of Black Americans. The court has condoned this practice, upholding the idea that in such a case, the state has a compelling reason to draw districts according to race. In the past, the court saw the creation of majority-minority districts as a way to comply with the Voting Rights Act, guaranteeing that Black voters can elect the lawmakers they prefer.

But in 2024, a “non-Black” voter in Louisiana challenged a new majority-minority district drawn so that the state’s congressional delegation might include two Black legislators out of the six allocated to the state. Those districts were designed to remedy the fact that although one third of the people who live in Louisiana are Black, the state has never had a Black senator, and no congressional district other than the majority-Black district has elected a Black representative. The state hasn’t had a Black governor since Reconstruction.

On April 29, by a vote of 6–3, with the right-wing justices in the majority, the Supreme Court declared Louisiana’s construction of a majority-minority district unconstitutional under the Fifteenth Amendment. It was, they said, an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. And, as the court ruled in Rucho v. Common Cause in 2019, the federal courts have no business addressing partisan gerrymandering.

Immediately, Louisiana governor Jeff Landry declared a state of emergency to stop the state’s congressional primary election, which was already underway. His declaration has thrown the election into chaos as 45,000 ballots already cast won’t be counted, and the ballots already sent out will still include the race that Landry has now postponed.

Since then, other Republican-dominated states have rushed to pass mid-decade gerrymanders that will shut Democrats out of power.

Tennessee governor Bill Lee, a Republican, immediately called the Tennessee legislature into emergency special session to get rid of the state’s only Democratic member of Congress, the one representing Memphis. Sixty percent of the people who live in Memphis are Black. Once back in session, the Tennessee lawmakers repealed their own law that prohibited mid-decade redistricting. Then, on May 7, they cracked Memphis into three districts, diluting Black votes by swamping them with voters in white suburbs. The state had similarly cracked Nashville in 2022, flipping that seat, as well, from Democratic to Republican.

“Tennessee is a conservative state, and this map ensures that our congressional delegation reflects that,” Republican state senator John Stevens said. “This is about allowing Tennessee to maximize its partisan advantage.”

On May 8 the Virginia state supreme court voted along partisan lines to strike down a plan Virginia voters had approved to redraw the state’s congressional districts temporarily to favor Democrats as a way to counteract the Republicans’ partisan gerrymanders in Texas, Florida, Ohio, and other states.

The court majority argued that the redistricting measure was invalid because, as Amna Nawaz and Ali Schmitz of PBS explained, the Virginia constitution requires the General Assembly to pass a constitutional amendment twice: once before a legislative election and once after. This should guarantee two different sets of eyes on any such amendment by letting the people elect new lawmakers between the votes. But when the General Assembly passed the measure the first time, early voting was already underway. Thus, the court said, it was not “before” a scheduled election.

On May 11, a week before elections are due to start there, the Supreme Court cleared the way for Alabama to use a 2023 district map that lower courts ruled unconstitutional because it diluted Black voting by spreading Black voters across three districts, thus violating Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. In an unsigned one-paragraph order, the Supreme Court sent the case back to the lower courts to reevaluate in light of the Callais decision.

On May 12, Tennessee House speaker Cameron Sexton removed all the House Democrats from standing committees, saying they had behaved in a way “aimed at disrupting the democratic and legislative processes” as they protested the mid-decade redistricting that broke up Tennessee’s only majority-Black, Democratic district. As Tennessee state representative Justin J. Pearson notes, this decree removed “every Black elected official in the state legislature from any committee we served on” and stripped “nearly 2 million Tennesseans from the representation they deserve” in the Tennessee state legislature.

On May 13—today—Georgia governor Brian Kemp called a special session of the Georgia General Assembly for June 17 to redraw Georgia’s congressional maps before the 2028 election. He said it was too late to change Georgia’s maps for 2026, but that the Callais decision requires Georgia to change its electoral maps.

Also today, Louisiana legislators advanced a congressional map eliminating one of the state’s two Black-majority districts. South Carolina governor Henry McMaster is expected to call for a special session to eliminate the state’s only Black-majority district and only Democratic seat, and Mississippi governor Tate Reeves said Mississippi lawmakers would eliminate the state’s only majority-Black district before 2028.

Jim Saksa of Democracy Docket assesses that redistricting could net Republicans between 16 and 18 seats in Congress in 2026, while the Democrats will likely pick up six, at least so far: five in California and one in Utah where a court demanded a redrawing of districts. Many of these redistricting plans are being challenged in the courts, and it remains possible that not all of them will flip, but G. Elliott Morris of Strength in Numbers assesses that the Democrats will have to win congressional elections by 3–4 points in order to win a majority.

We are watching, in real time, the creation of a one-party state in the American South.

We have been here before.

The actual name of what we know as the Voting Rights Act is “AN ACT To enforce the fifteenth amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and for other purposes.”

In the wake of the Civil War, Americans tried to create a new nation in which the law treated Black men and white men as equals. In 1865 they ratified the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, outlawing enslavement except as punishment for crimes. In 1868 they adjusted the Constitution again, guaranteeing that anyone born or naturalized in the United States—except certain Indigenous Americans—was a citizen, opening up suffrage to Black men. In 1870, after Georgia legislators expelled their newly seated Black colleagues, Americans defended the right of Black men to vote by recognizing that right in the Constitution.

All three of those amendments—the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth—gave Congress the power to enforce them. In 1870, Congress established the Department of Justice to do just that. Reactionary white southerners had been using state laws, and the unwillingness of state judges and juries to protect Black Americans from white gangs and unscrupulous employers, to keep Black people subservient. White men organized as the Ku Klux Klan to terrorize Black men and to keep them and their white allies from voting to change that system. In 1870 the federal government stepped in to protect Black rights and prosecute members of the Ku Klux Klan.

With federal power now behind the Constitutional protection of equality, threatening jail for those who violated the law, white opponents of Black voting changed their argument against it.

In 1871 they began to say that they had no problem with Black men voting on racial grounds; their objection to Black voting was that Black men, just out of enslavement, were poor and uneducated. They were voting for lawmakers who promised them public services, like roads and schools, that could only be paid for with tax levies. Black voters, they said, were ushering in socialism.

Former Confederates declared it their duty to “redeem” the South from “Black rule,” by which they meant the Republicans and third parties in which white men and Black men worked together for policies that benefited workingmen, policies like education and workers’ protections. White Democrats argued that because such parties, even if overwhelmingly white, could win only with Black votes, they represented “Black rule.”

By 1880 the South was solidly Democratic, and it would remain so until the mid-1960s as white southern Democrats worked to silence the voices of Black Americans in the South to cement their own control over the region. In 1890, fourteen southern congressmen wrote a book to explain to their northern colleagues why Democrats had to control the South. Why the Solid South? or Reconstruction and Its Results insisted that Black voters who had supported the Republicans after the Civil War had perverted the government by using it to give themselves services paid for with white tax dollars.

Later that year, a new constitution in Mississippi started the process of making sure Black people could not vote by requiring educational tests, poll taxes, or a grandfather who had voted.

Eight years later, there was still enough Black voting in North Carolina and enough class solidarity with poor whites that voters in Wilmington elected a coalition government of Black Republicans and white Populists. White Democrats agreed that the coalition had won fairly, but about 2,000 of them nonetheless armed themselves to “reform” the city government. They issued a “White Declaration of Independence” and said they would “never again be ruled, by men of African origin.” It was time, they said, “for the intelligent citizens of this community owning 95% of the property and paying taxes in proportion, to end the rule by” Black men.

As they forced the elected officials out of office and took their places, the new Democratic mayor claimed “there was no intimidation used,” but as many as 300 African Americans died in the Wilmington coup. In the years to come, white Americans would continue to maintain control of politics through violence. They considered it a public duty to purge society of Black Americans, taking photographs of themselves at lynchings.

The region white Democrats ruled at the beginning of the twentieth century enforced white supremacy with extralegal violence. That racial domination helped white Americans swallow the South’s dramatic inequality. A few wealthy men dominated the region, while most people were poor: southerners had about half the average per capita income of the rest of the nation.

It was this world Congress addressed when, after more than 80 years in which state legislatures refused to acknowledge the Fifteenth Amendment, it passed the 1965 Voting Rights Act, finally taking seriously the amendment’s charge to “enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

In their 2018 book How Democracies Die, political scientists Steven Levitsky and Daniel Ziblatt noted that democracies depend on members of each party recognizing the legitimacy of their partisan rivals. Even if they disagree with each other, each recognizes the others’ members as loyal to the nation and accepts their legitimacy as lawmakers if voters elect them. Democracy also depends on parties refusing to use the tools of government to destroy the ability of their partisan opponents to win elections.

A day after a Pennsylvania man was arrested for making a “hit list” of twenty Democratic legislators he called “communist infiltrators” and threatened to shoot, as President Trump calls Democrats “traitors” and as southern states destroy the ability of Black Democrats to elect representatives, the echoes of the past are deafening.

Although the parties have switched sides, the story is the same. Now, as then, a minority is disfranchising voters because it knows its ideas are unpopular and it cannot win on the merits of its policies. What it can do, though, is to deliver white supremacy to its followers in hopes that it will be enough to make them ignore the economic system that is leading them to ruin.

As Joyce White Vance noted tonight in Civil Discourse, Georgia Senate minority leader Harold Jones II reacted to the news of Georgia’s special session for redistricting by saying: “If Republicans ever used their power to help Georgians, they wouldn’t have to waste time and money redrawing the maps every few years to keep their majorities.

“June will be our third redistricting since 2021. Republicans need to undo their last gerrymander because it wasn’t good enough to keep their waffling political party in power. Most parties would try out some new ideas. Republicans choose to strip political power from Black people and undo the progress the South made in the last 60 years.

“Let’s sum it up for everybody. The biggest bloc of middle and working class voters are Black people. When Republicans strip Black people’s political power away, it doesn’t just strip one community of power. It strips political power from every single middle and working class person and hands it over to billionaires and big corporations. That’s what redistricting means for you.”

[Alex MG] The Redistricting Race To The Bottom A Southerner's Point of View Joyce Vance...

Alex MG — 5/14/2026 12:46:15 AM

The Redistricting Race To The Bottom
A Southerner's Point of View

Joyce Vance

May 14

Southern states continue to push redistricting as far and as fast as they can, seemingly for no purpose other than the incessant desire to please an audience of one. First, the table setting: Here’s where things stand tonight.

Alabama

One of only two Black House members from Alabama, longtime District 7 Congresswoman Terri Sewell, who represents Selma as well as parts of Montgomery, Birmingham, and other areas of the state, is set to be drawn out of her seat. On Wednesday, the Princeton- and Harvard-educated lawyer, who is not prone to drama, tweeted, “This is a five-alarm fire. Black political representation in America is under attack.”

Alabama’s Attorney General Steve Marshall has been telling anyone who will listen that he wants to eliminate the two minority-majority districts in Alabama, created pursuant to court order in the Milligan case we’ve been discussing. Marshall told a LiveNowFox host that “7-0 is the number that we need in Alabama,” referring to gerrymandering the political power of minorities, who are 36% of the population, out of existence.

All of this is happening as the three-judge panel that considered Milligan and ordered the states’ maps redrawn, is deciding what to do next. The Supreme Court ordered it to use the rule from Callais to decide the outcome of the state’s motion, asking for permission to readopt the old maps that the Court determined were illegal at the time. The panel made a finding of intentional discrimination after the trial in the matter.

Georgia

Governor Brian Kemp announced today that he will call Georgia lawmakers back for a special session on June 17 to redraw both congressional and state legislative maps for the 2028 election. Gerrymandering affects district-based elections, not statewide ones. But that includes state legislative races, not just elections for the U.S. House of Representatives. Apparently, Georgia intends to “lead” the way.

Even though Kemp’s stated plans concern the 2028 election, people familiar with Georgia politics, including Fair Fight President Lauren Groh-Wargo, have pointed out that Republicans could return during the lame-duck session later this year and “gut the congressional maps” if Democrats win the governor’s mansion and/or the state legislature.

Louisiana

Voters will head to the polls Thursday morning on SB 121, which would leave the state with just one majority-minority district, as outlined in the Callais case. The state’s other five House seats would become safely Republican if the legislature adopts the map, and there is every reason to believe it intends to do so.

Mississippi

Wednesday morning, Governor Tate Reeves canceled the Mississippi special session that had been scheduled to begin next Wednesday after the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated an order Republicans had hoped to use as a pretext for redrawing congressional maps. The staunchly Republican governor now says he does not expect new maps before 2027, but that remains to be seen. The Fifth Circuit may take another bite at the apple.

South Carolina

Enough Republicans in the state Senate balked at the idea of returning to session to redraw district maps, preventing the two-thirds majority vote required to do so. At least for now, it appears there will not be a new map in South Carolina, though that could still change.

Tennessee and Florida

Court hearings are scheduled in both states. In Tennessee, a hearing is set for May 20 in the NAACP lawsuit challenging late-decade redistricting. In Florida, a hearing is scheduled for Friday on efforts to block its proposed new maps.

***

Here’s the perspective part: Sometimes you need to step back, because when you focus only on the trees, you miss the forest. We are seeing a radical, racist transformation of voting maps in many Republican-led states. The larger question we should be asking is: why?

The answer is self-evident, but it’s important that we say it directly. Republicans are afraid they can’t win elections on the merits of their governance and policies. So now, they’ve turned to moving the goalposts, changing the rules for winning elections so they can try to hold onto power nonetheless.

Earlier this week, CNN reported that 77% of Americans, including a majority of Republicans, say Trump’s policies have increased their cost of living. His approval rating on the economy stands at just 30%. There’s a reason he keeps overwhelming the public with incompetently conducted wars, belligerent displays of dominance, and aggressive gerrymandering: it’s because the emperor truly has no clothes. And American voters have figured that out.

Georgia’s minority leader, Harold Jones II, put it like this:

If Republicans ever used their power to help Georgians, they wouldn’t have to waste time and money redrawing the maps every few years to keep their majorities.

June will be our third redistricting since 2021. Republicans need to undo their last gerrymander because it wasn’t good enough to keep their waffling political party in power. Most parties would try out some new ideas. Republicans choose to strip political power from Black people and undo the progress the South made in the last 60 years.

Let’s sum it up for everybody. The biggest bloc of middle and working class voters are Black people. When Republicans strip Black people’s political power away, it doesn’t just strip one community of power. It strips political power from every single middle and working class person and hands it over to billionaires and big corporations. That’s what redistricting means for you.

That is real wisdom. Republicans have to gerrymander because they can’t win the hearts and minds of enough voters outright. This is the point we should be reinforcing when we talk with friends and family about this race to the bottom. None of this would be necessary if Republicans believed they could win the midterm elections on the merits. But they don’t, and they know it. That’s why we’re seeing all the gamesmanship. That’s why they’re diluting Black voting power. Because they know what the House could look like after November if Americans are allowed to vote in a fair election. That makes our mission pretty clear. We all know what we need to do: vote in record numbers. Vote to hold onto our democracy in the face of people who are only interested in holding onto power.

When this term started, I shared my view with y’all that Callais would be one of the most important cases the Court decided this term. It has certainly turned out that way. I’m so appreciative that you all are here with me, understanding the significance of the history we are living through, committed to getting this coming election right. Every night when I sign off, I write to you that “We’re in this together.” It has never been more true. Thank you for being here with me at Civil Discourse, and for your support for this work.

We’re in this together,

Joyce

[S. maltophilia] .....That brings us to the law. Pennsylvania’s vote-buying statute, 25 P.S. § ...

S. maltophilia — 5/6/2026 10:17:08 PM

.....That brings us to the law.

Pennsylvania’s vote-buying statute, 25 P.S. § 3539, makes it a third-degree felony to give “any gift or reward in money, goods or other valuable thing” with intent to influence a person’s vote. The statute is short, plain, and direct. The required elements are a person, gave something of value, to other persons, with intent to influence their vote for a particular candidate. Each element maps to public conduct on the record. Musk is the person. America PAC’s $50 million giveaway program, with payments ....

cmarmitage.substack.com

[Ron] The humiliating cross-examination of Elon Musk oligarchwatch.substack.com

Ron — 5/2/2026 7:34:43 AM

[S. maltophilia] As of now, the only US coverage of this protest comes from right wing media - Ne...

S. maltophilia — 5/2/2026 2:25:35 AM

As of now, the only US coverage of this protest comes from right wing media - News Nation , Fox, Washington Times, Newsweek.

NYT and WAPO are silent, though WAPO did cover his protest of 2022. Al Jazeera also has a piece:

aljazeera.com

An example of cluelesssness, from News Nation:

facebook.com

[Alex MG] [X] 6) Here is my full 4K documentary footage of Guido Reichstadter's bridge-cl...

Alex MG — 5/1/2026 11:55:27 PM

[X]

6) Here is my full 4K documentary footage of Guido Reichstadter's bridge-climbing protest (so far) against AI development and the Iran war.

As always, all footage is available to license.https://t.co/0gnwZx0IUK
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) May 2, 2026

[/X]

[Alex MG] [X] 2) As I got Guido on the phone, from on top of the bridge, Capitol Police a...

Alex MG — 5/1/2026 11:53:22 PM

[X]

2) As I got Guido on the phone, from on top of the bridge, Capitol Police approached and began speaking to him.

One officer took my phone to speak with Guido.

Ultimately, with Guido's permission, I gave the police his number so they could speak without my phone. pic.twitter.com/wDoVoKZkRr
— Ford Fischer (@FordFischer) May 1, 2026

[/X]

[S. maltophilia] ....Maintenance should represent a victory lap for a visionary who has influenc...

S. maltophilia — 4/23/2026 3:42:11 PM

....Maintenance should represent a victory lap for a visionary who has influenced our culture profoundly. Unfortunately, I have grave misgivings about any future installments. The first warning sign appears in the table of contents, which features five “digressions,” including one simply titled “Elon Musk.” Flip to that essay and you’ll come across these lines: “Through Tesla and SpaceX, Musk initiated and directly led a new, accelerated regime in climate-friendly electric vehicles and a new, accelerated regime in providing access to Earth orbit. With the success of these projects, Musk may have done more practical world saving than any other business leader of his time.”

I suspect that I won’t be the only reader surprised to find Musk praised so prominently in a book about nurturing the “maintenance mind.” Musk may have a knack for building hardware from the ground up, but when it comes to what Brand describes as the “repetitive, boring, often frustrating” work of maintaining existing legacy systems, I can hardly think of a less promising role model than the man who was ....

theatlantic.com

[zax] The unflattering secrets revealed so far in Elon Musk’s latest legal feud Hundr...

zax — 4/23/2026 1:32:48 PM

The unflattering secrets revealed so far in Elon Musk’s latest legal feud

Hundreds of court filings have revealed cringey texts, emails or private diary entries of Musk, Sam Altman, other OpenAI founders and other public figures.

washingtonpost.com

Tesla chief executive Elon Musk and Sam Altman, CEO of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, are scheduled to face off in court next week in a case brought by Musk that claims Altman and others enriched themselves by allegedly betraying the artificial intelligence company’s founding mission.

The bitter legal feud between the two tech titans is prying open the industry’s most powerful circles by spilling the tea of Silicon Valley VIPs.

Hundreds of court filings have revealed cringey texts, emails or private diary entries of Musk, Altman, other OpenAI founders and other public figures. They include Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg privately offering to use his social platforms to help Musk’s interests, Musk insulting Amazon Executive Chairman Jeff Bezos (twice) and a journal in which a big MAGA donor muses about becoming a billionaire, according to the filings. (Bezos owns The Washington Post; OpenAI has a content partnership with The Post.)

There will be fireworks in the federal courtroom in Oakland, California, predicted Andrew Stoltmann, a corporate litigation lawyer not involved in the case who has followed it closely. “We are about to witness the landing of the Hindenburg on the deck of the Titanic; we know it’s going to be crazy and nasty.”

Musk and Altman co-founded OpenAI in 2015, but Musk left the company in an acrimonious split in 2018. His lawsuit, originally filed in 2024, alleges that OpenAI broke its founding pledges to share its technology openly with the world as a nonprofit artificial intelligence research lab. Musk argues that Altman and Greg Brockman, another OpenAI co-founder, conspired to enrich themselves at Musk’s expense and asks the court to remove them from their leadership positions and to restore OpenAI to a full nonprofit.

OpenAI has said Musk is simply trying to undercut a competitor to his own AI company, xAI. A spokesperson for OpenAI referred The Post to a website where it has posted running commentary on the dispute. “Motivated by jealousy, regret for walking away from OpenAI and a desire to derail a competing AI company, Elon has spent years harassing OpenAI through baseless lawsuits and public attacks,” the site says.

...

Musk’s alleged secret agent inside OpenAI was also the mother of four of his children

Shivon Zilis is a longtime ally of Musk and has worked at several of his companies. She acted as an “Elon whisperer” to OpenAI, Altman said in his deposition, and the company says she served on its board of directors from 2020 to 2023. Documents in the case include text messages in which the pair appear to discuss how Zilis can feed information from inside OpenAI back to Musk.

</snip> Read the full article here: washingtonpost.com

[Alex MG] “Superpower suicide.” [X] Historian @TimothyDSnyder sums up a year of Trump ch...

Alex MG — 4/23/2026 12:09:17 PM

“Superpower suicide.”

[X]

Historian @TimothyDSnyder sums up a year of Trump choices and policies in one overall conceptual framework, which he calls “Superpower suicide.” pic.twitter.com/x7wfXbJ2eo
— Christiane Amanpour (@amanpour) April 22, 2026

[/X]

[Alex MG] [X] JUST IN: The Strait of Hormuz stopped being international water on April 22...

Alex MG — 4/23/2026 11:48:23 AM

[X]

JUST IN: The Strait of Hormuz stopped being international water on April 22, 2026. The IRGC Navy seized the MSC Francesca and Epaminondas while Trump’s ceasefire extension was less than twenty-four hours old, and the White House called it piracy without admitting what piracy… pic.twitter.com/SsHBGAaAl0
— Shanaka Anslem Perera ⚡ (@shanaka86) April 22, 2026

[/X]

[Alex MG] [graphic]

Alex MG — 4/23/2026 9:26:11 AM

[Alex MG] [graphic]

Alex MG — 4/16/2026 9:29:38 AM

[Alex MG] [X] Hungarian Prime Minister-elect Peter Magyar: Ukraine is the victim of thi...

Alex MG — 4/13/2026 2:05:33 PM

[X]

Hungarian Prime Minister-elect Peter Magyar:

Ukraine is the victim of this war. Everyone knows that. No one should tell Ukraine under what conditions it must enter peace or sign a peace treaty. We cannot ask any country to give up its territory. pic.twitter.com/LORCLJGvUy
— Republicans against Trump (@RpsAgainstTrump) April 13, 2026

[/X]

[Alex MG] [X] One of Elon’s baby mamas wants you to know how Republican pay-for-play infl...

Alex MG — 4/13/2026 1:32:41 PM

[X]

One of Elon’s baby mamas wants you to know how Republican pay-for-play influence gigs work pic.twitter.com/WuZ1aYRqMC
— Jackie Singh (@HackingButLegal) April 11, 2026

[/X]

[Alex MG] The Joy of Choosing Democracy https://www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/the-joy-of-choo...

Alex MG — 4/13/2026 12:52:32 PM

The Joy of Choosing Democracy

https://www.doomsdayscenario.co/p/the-joy-of-choosing-democracy

The inspiring electoral upset in Hungary yesterday is great for Europe, good for Ukraine, bad for Russia, bad for Trump, and bad for the far-right over the entire globe.

It was a bad weekend for J.D. Vance and a good one for democracy, at least in Europe. Vance, of course, had one of the losingist weekends any world-class loser on a losing streak has ever had — the type of weekend that makes Neville Chamberlain look downright Churchillian by comparison. He campaigned — quite loudly and ineffectively — for the reelection of Hungary’s autocrat, a stunningly inappropriate meddling in a foreign election, an event that itself went so poorly that when he tried to flex and call Donald Trump live on-stage, his call went to voicemail.

Then he departed for Pakistan, where after only a single day of negotiations with Iranian over a possible peace deal that would avert a further geopolitical spiral of escalation in Donald Trump’s war-of-choice, Vance announced failure and flew home.

Before I get to the actual point of today’s column, it’s worth noting just how unserious Vance is as a negotiator and diplomat. It astounds me that they couldn’t even pretend to spend a second day at the negotiating table, but then again, when you send Vance, you’re not sending your best. As Jamelle Bouie noted over the weekend, “The funny thing about sending JD Vance out to do sensitive diplomatic negotiations is he has literally no experience. Like, none whatsoever. He doesn’t even have related experience in lawmaking or some executive role. I think people have forgotten that Vance is quite possibly the least experienced person to ever serve as vice president of the United States.”

But anyway — onto to today’s column, which if you’re paying attention is the second-straight hopeful column I’ve written in a row, a perhaps unprecedented streak since January 2025. (As a PS to Saturday’s column on the “ pure joy of joy”: Watch this video of the Artemis crew debriefing, where they talked specifically about the role that joy played for them in their crew and their mission. The lesson is important, as I wrote Saturday: Make joy a purposeful part of your life.)

And now the reason for today’s hope:

Last night, after a 16-year reign, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orbán — Europe’s would-be authoritarian — was defeated in a massive landslide by Péter Magyar and his opposition Tisza party. A democratic country that across the 21st century has slid steadily toward autocracy rose up, resisted, and — for now, apparently — chose a different path. It is as titanic an achievement for democracy as we have seen in Europe since the fall of the Berlin Wall, one to stand alongside Ukraine’s Orange Revolution or its Maidan protests in 2014 that led to the ouster of Viktor Yanukovych.

Peter Magyar celebrates in Budapest, Hungary, last night after his party’s incredible ouster of autocrat and Trump favorite Viktor Orbán. (Photo by Janos Kummer/Getty Images)

The election mandate was so huge that Tisza secured the supermajority that will allow it — if it follows through with its campaign promises — to amend the national constitution and prohibit the rise of any future Orbáns (or even the return of Orbán himself). Perhaps most importantly of all, Magyar in his victory speech said he and his party were coming for all the “Orbánists” who enabled the corrupt regime, demanded the immediate resignations of cronies installed across government, and promised “never again a country without consequences!” In return, the victory night crowd chanted a warning to all the corrupt lackeys and self-dealing cronies who made Orbán possible: “To prison! To prison!”

“Hungarians showing how to win big in an unfair election: organize AND protest AND vote AND demand profound change,” Timothy Snyder posted last night.

It’s important to understand Hungary’s trajectory and pressures in order to see why it matters for the United States.

But first a little background:

I spent roughly a year or so after my original FBI book in 2011 traveling back-and-forth to Budapest and attempting to research and write a follow-up book on the rise of Russian organized crime. I was particularly fascinated with the story of Semion Mogilevich, a major Russian mafia boss and — at the time — the only international figure on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted list alongside Osama bin Laden. Who was this guy that rise to “bin Laden levels of criminality” in the 2000s that I had never heard of?

Hungary represented this fascinating edge between the east and west, between the Russian sphere of influence and the western democracies of Europe. Post-Communist Budapest through the 1990s had become a center of the Russian mafia because it was something of the continent’s “westernmost eastern city,” a place where you could enjoy all the perks of the west with the weak institutions and corruption that eased a life of crime in the east. (Today in book recommendations: You don’t know it, but you really want to read this 20-year-old tale of Hungary’s most famous bank robber — The Ballad of the Whiskey Robber.)

The city for a while teemed with Russian mafia and violence; walking through the city with FBI agents, they’d point out this nightclub that had bombed or that restaurant that had had a grenade thrown through the door.

Mogilevich himself set up his own base in Budapest for years, until the FBI arrived in town and set up its first overseas Russian organized task force in Hungary — an unprecedented half-FBI, half-Hungarian team that became something of a new model for Robert Mueller’s vision for how the FBI could combat the growing threat of vast and sophisticated overseas criminal enterprise. (Here’s a line from my 2011 book The Threat Matrix that now reads a little too prescient: “The FBI photographed at least one of [Mogilevich’s] aides attending a Republican Party fundraiser in Texas.”)

In the end, I never wrote that nonfiction book — nor finished the 200-pages or so of the novel that I tried to turn it into instead — but have ever since remained fascinated by the rise of Russian organized crime and the trajectory of Hungary over the 15 years, both subjects that became more central to the world than any of us would have liked.

Aside: I did write a big piece about Russian organized crime in 2018 here, if you’re curious for some background — including its relevance to Trump. Fun fact: The Russian equivalent of a “godfather” is known as vory v zakone, a so-called “thief-in-law,” e.g., a thief who makes the law. There have been only a handful ever uncovered in the U.S., fewer than a half-dozen. The first to arrive in the U.S. moved straight into Trump Tower, and a second ran what prosecutors called “an international sportsbook that catered primarily to Russian oligarchs living in Russia and Ukraine and throughout the world,” run out of Trump Tower’s Unit 63A, and a few months after his federal indictment showed up at Trump’s Miss Universe pageant in Moscow.

Through the 1990s and the 2000s, Hungary — like many eastern European countries — lurched unsteadily toward democracy and the west while fighting off the ghosts of its eastern past and political traditions. Then Orbán arrived on the scene. Under his rule — Orbán, both as prime minister and head of his Christian nationalist far-right party, known as Fidesz — has led an enormous backslide in Hungary. He’s followed the would-be authoritarian’s playbook in every way — attacking the free press, punishing the political opposition, and aligning himself with Putin as the Russian dictator’s puppet-in-Europe — and transformed Hungary into what political scientists call “competitive authoritarian state,” which is to say that “free elections” continue but under increasingly unfair conditions.

Orbán did to Hungary in many ways exactly what Donald Trump, with the full support of the Republican Party, has been trying to do to the United States since last January.

That approach enriched Orbán and his willing cronies, but didn’t do very well for Hungary or for greater Europe —its standard of living fell dramatically and corruption rose as Orbán solidified power, which was terrible for the business environment. For years now, Orbán too has been a thorn in the side of Europe — helping to stall aid to Ukraine and use its own internal EU negotiating power and vetoes to advance Vladimir Putin’s agenda rather than contribute to the progress of a democratic Europe. ( Orbán also appears to have some important help along the way from, you guessed it, Semion Mogilevich.)

Along the way, Hungary became something of a rallying cry and focal point for the US far-right, a model of what they could achieve and build (and destroy) here in the United States under Trumpism. Tucker Carlson embraced Orbán. CPAC, the far-right political conference, began offering a Budapest version. And Trump and Orbán have developed as close a “friendship” as Trump has with any foreign leader and — most recently — Trump dispatched JD Vance in an attempt to sway the Hungarian election, meaning that both Putin and Trump were offering foreign interference on the same side, which is quite a sentence to write.

Now, though, we have a different story to tell about Hungary — and ourselves in the age of Trumpism.

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Writing in The Atlantic, the great Anne Applebaum, perhaps the world’s keenest observer of eastern Europe, said, “In the end, the defeat of Viktor Orbán, Hungary’s autocratic prime minister, required not just an ordinary election campaign or new messaging but rather the construction of a broad, diverse, and patriotic grassroots social movement. And by building exactly that, Hungary’s opposition changed politics around the world. Orbán’s loss brings to an end the assumption of inevitability that has pervaded the MAGA movement, as well as the belief—also present in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s rhetoric—that illiberal parties are somehow destined not just to win but to hold power forever, because they have the support of the “real” people. As it turns out, history doesn’t work like that.”

Certainly history’s long-term verdict remains unsettled today; it may or may not someday show tell us that this weekend in Hungary was a speed bump — akin to Joe Biden winning in 2020, perhaps — before Orbán himself or his regime return and consolidated power for good. Perhaps Magyar and the opposition aren’t the champions of democracy they purport to be.

But for now, Hungary has a chance for a fresh start.

There’s plenty of reason for joy in Budapest for a moment, at least. And it’s a reminder to all of us: The future is unwritten and we can change it. (Photo by Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

In the short- and medium-term, if Magyar follows through on his promises, it will be great for Europe, good for Ukraine, bad for Russia, and bad for the far-right over the entire globe — all of which, to me, is a victory for the forces of good in the world.

But beyond the geopolitics, the lesson can and should be bigger for us in the United States, as Applebaum says. Autocracies are more brittle than they would like us to believe. We have a chance to restore and fight for democracy. History can swerve, turn, and change.

Every move by Trump and the MAGA Republican movement is meant to project that resistance is futile and their vision for a white Christian nationalist autocracy is inevitable. But we have a lot of evidence to the contrary — from the streets of Minneapolis to the courts to the regular “blue wave” elections happening in unlikely places — and Trumpism isn’t even anywhere as far advanced as Orbánism was in Hungary, where he’s had 16 years to solidify control and depress the opposition.

Simply put, as Timothy Snyder reminds us, “Do not concede in advance.”

How to follow the model of the Hungarian opposition, though, is itself an important case study for Democrats and the pro-democracy opposition here in the United States; the Financial Times’ Ed Luce made an important observation: “People will be closely studying how Hungary’s opposition pulled off their win in such a pro-incumbent system. Important to note that the theme was corruption. Democrats need to get much better at calling out Trump’s corruption.”

To me, “Never again a country without consequences!” is as good an organizing principle as we can have for this moment.

We must always remember, first and foremost, this simple point: We today are still the ones who write tomorrow’s history.

GMG

[Ron] Will Musk ever be forced to explain what he did inside DOGE? He's evading subpoe...

Ron — 4/13/2026 12:38:26 PM

Will Musk ever be forced to explain what he did inside DOGE?
He's evading subpoenas:
archive.ph

Elon Musk was ubiquitous in Washington last spring, wielding unprecedented power helping the Trump administration reshape and, in some cases, dismantle federal agencies across the government.
But now, his legal adversaries can’t find him to answer questions under oath about the role he played at the so-called Department of Government Efficiency in the first months of President Donald Trump’s administration.
In one case, Texas constables and others attempting to serve a plaintiffs’ deposition request went to his various properties 14 times, only to be turned away or told Musk wasn’t there.
Government lawyers have argued that the world’s richest man should be shielded from demands to answer questions — even though he is no longer a government employee.

[Alex MG] [X] We need answers.https://t.co/nfLpRa4Sds— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) Marc...

Alex MG — 4/1/2026 1:26:57 PM

[X]

We need answers.https://t.co/nfLpRa4Sds
— Elizabeth Warren (@SenWarren) March 30, 2026

[/X]

[S. maltophilia] Trump and Modi Had a Call About the Iran War. Elon Musk Joined Them. Mr. Musk’s...

S. maltophilia — 3/28/2026 12:03:52 PM

Trump and Modi Had a Call About the Iran War. Elon Musk Joined Them.
Mr. Musk’s participation was notable because it is rare for a private citizen to be on a call between heads of state. It also suggests that Mr. Musk is back on better terms with the president.

Elon Musk participated in a phone call on Tuesday with President Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi of India, an unusual appearance by a private citizen on a call between two heads of state during a wartime crisis.

The inclusion of Mr. Musk, confirmed by two U.S. officials, suggests that the world’s richest man is back on better terms with the president. The two men had a falling out last summer following the billionaire’s departure from the government, where he had been tasked with slashing the work force. They appear to have smoothed things over in recent months.

The U.S. officials asked for anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly.

It is unclear why Mr. Musk was on the call or whether he spoke. His companies have taken on significant investment from ....

nytimes.com

[Ron] Baltimore is first U.S. city to sue over Grok deepfake porn as legal pressure mo...

Ron — 3/24/2026 3:27:22 PM

Baltimore is first U.S. city to sue over Grok deepfake porn as legal pressure mounts on Musk’s xAI
cnbc.com

[Alex MG] [X] The C-RAM at the American Embassy in Baghdad has been fighting a sustained ...

Alex MG — 3/16/2026 11:42:53 PM

[X]

The C-RAM at the American Embassy in Baghdad has been fighting a sustained engagement against Iranian attack drones tonight. pic.twitter.com/xxMbzx7ucg
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) March 17, 2026

[/X]

[Alex MG] [X] An Iranian-backed militia successfully used a (likely fiber optic) FPV dron...

Alex MG — 3/16/2026 11:38:01 PM

[X]

An Iranian-backed militia successfully used a (likely fiber optic) FPV drone to carry out a reconnaissance mission through the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad yesterday.

Seen here, the drone flies unchallenged through the embassy complex for nearly two minutes. pic.twitter.com/S1Ky3eVUv0
— OSINTtechnical (@Osinttechnical) March 17, 2026

[/X]
[X]

Geolocated:

Iraqi PMF FPV flying over the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad.

33.2994335, 44.3902142 https://t.co/Klix0S1EvN pic.twitter.com/MaQQqkR3s0
— Woofers (@NotWoofers) March 17, 2026

[/X]

[Ron] [bluesky] • 3h ago The US government is going to have to pay for a lot of ident...

Ron — 3/13/2026 9:51:24 PM

[bluesky]

• 3h ago The US government is going to have to pay for a lot of identity protection subscriptions. 3h ago Elon musk should get the bill personally for that He'll probably start a company that offers identity protection and charge the federal government an arm and a leg for it.
— The Naked Gardener (@thenakeddgardener.bsky.social) 2026-03-13T14:51:05.751Z

[/bluesky]

[Alex MG] [X] One of Musk's DOGE bros explains how he flagged "DEI" grants for terminatio...

Alex MG — 3/13/2026 4:10:57 PM

[X]

One of Musk's DOGE bros explains how he flagged "DEI" grants for termination pic.twitter.com/XYUGlkd5Y9
— Molly Ploofkins (@Mollyploofkins) March 12, 2026

[/X]

[Alex MG] Jeff Currie, chief strategy officer at Carlyle Energy Pathways, says the Iran wa...

Alex MG — 3/12/2026 11:55:48 AM

Jeff Currie, chief strategy officer at Carlyle Energy Pathways, says the Iran war is already impacting the entire global energy supply chain
and it will take months to unwind the damage. He warns "keep the hoarding down." Currie speaks on Bloomberg Surveillance

[Alex MG] Trump says Kushner helped convince him to go to war with Iran The disclosure hig...

Alex MG — 3/11/2026 11:52:06 PM

Trump says Kushner helped convince him to go to war with Iran
The disclosure highlights Kushner's massive financial conflicts.

Judd Legum

Mar 11

Jared Kushner is acknowledged during the State of the Union on February 24, 2026, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

At a press conference on Monday evening, President Trump said his son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was one of a handful of top advisers who convinced him to launch major combat operations in Iran. The disclosure raises additional questions about the role of Kushner, who is being paid tens of millions of dollars annually by Middle Eastern governments that were reportedly lobbying Trump to attack Iran.

Trump: "Based on what Steve and Jared and Pete and others were telling me, Marco is so involved, I thought they were going to attack us"

Mon, 09 Mar 2026 22:04:24 GMT

“The situation was very quickly approaching the point of no return… based on what Steve and Jared and Pete and others were telling me, Marco is so involved, I thought they were going to attack us,” Trump said, referring to Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff, Secretary of War Pete Hegseth, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and Kushner, who has no formal title.

“Within a week, [Iran was] going to attack us, 100 percent. They were ready,” Trump said at a different event Monday. “They had all these missiles, far more than anyone thought, and they were going to attack us.”

Witkoff and Kushner were dispatched by Trump to Geneva to participate in mediation with their Iranian counterparts, in what was described as a last-ditch effort to avoid war. Kushner’s participation violated his pledge not to be involved in foreign policy in a second Trump administration. Instead, Kushner had said he was focused on running his private equity fund, Affinity Partners, which has raised billions of dollars from foreign governments.

Kushner’s largest investor is the Saudi Arabian government, which provided Kushner with $2 billion in funding in 2021. Each year, Saudi Arabia pays Kushner 1.25% of its investment, $25 million, as a “management fee.” Meaning he has received in excess of $100 million from the Saudi government over the last few years.

Notably, “Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman made multiple private phone calls to Trump” in February, advocating a U.S. attack,” according to reporting in the Washington Post. Trump’s comments reveal that Kushner used his role in Geneva to push Trump toward the outcome favored by his biggest client. Affinity Partners also received more than $200 million from the UAE. According to CNN, behind the scenes, the UAE was also lobbying Trump to strike Iran.

It is unclear precisely what Kushner told Trump about his mediation session with the Iranians. The Times of Israel, quoting an anonymous administration source, said that Kushner told Trump that Iran was “ basically playing games.” According to the source, Kushner told Trump that it would only be possible for Trump to strike an “ Obama kind of deal“ with Iran and even that “would take months.”

The claim that Iran was planning an imminent attack against the U.S. — the conclusion that Trump took away from his discussions with Kushner and others — is directly contradicted by U.S. intelligence agencies. Shortly after the war began, “Trump administration officials told congressional staff in private briefings on Sunday that U.S. intelligence did not suggest Iran was preparing to launch a preemptive strike against the United States interests,” according to ABC News. CNN reported that Trump administration officials “acknowledged to congressional staff that Iran was not planning to strike US forces or bases in the Middle East unless Israel attacked Iran first.” Senator Mark Warner (D-VA), the top Democrat on the intelligence committee who receives classified briefings, said, “I saw no evidence that Iran was on the verge of launching any kind of preemptive strike against the United States of America.”