Charlie Stross1d ago

Holy shit.

Hungary’s New Leader Reveals Viktor Orbán Was Paying CPAC

Magyar noted that his government will be investigating Orbán’s expenditures, and will no longer finance CPAC or other right-wing institutions abroad.

https://newrepublic.com/post/209035/hungary-prime-minister-victor-orban-paying-cpac

Hungary’s New Leader Reveals Viktor Orbán Was Paying CPAC

Péter Magyar called the payments a “crime” and said his government would stop the funds.

The New Republic
Show threadNicole Parsons1d ago

@cstross

Orban functioned as a conduit for Putin's foreign threat funding for years.

Petrostate despots and oil oligarchs fund a lot of fascism globally.

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/13/us/politics/russia-election-interference.html

https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/20/us/politics/koch-network-2024-election-trump.html

Republicans & the Epstein Class cannot resist fossil fuel public corruption.

https://www.newsweek.com/who-konstantin-nikolaev-money-mike-johnson-1870600

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2018/06/the-nra-spent-dollar30-million-to-elect-trump-was-it-russian-money

Russia Secretly Gave $300 Million to Political Parties and Officials Worldwide, U.S. Says

A U.S. intelligence review found that Russian agencies and figures aimed to exert political influence abroad and sway elections on behalf of the Kremlin.

The New York Times
Show threadSir Jo

@Npars01 @cstross

Buy a tank for 5 million $
or
buy a politician for 50.000 $

Eventually you get lucky and you get a country with tanks & planes & warships working for you in return for your cash...

Apr 15 at 3:15pmWeb
Show threadNicole Parsons5h ago

@Breturn @cstross

Alternatively, you get a nation where public corruption is so extreme that the budget for tires ended up in an oligarch's Swiss bank account or laundered via a Trump golf course.

Then your "3 day invasion" turns into a 10 year boondoggle.

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-64664944

https://theweek.com/russo-ukrainian-war/1010857/how-cheap-chinese-tires-might-explain-russias-stalled-40-mile-long

Trump's billionaires are war profiteering at a scale that even Putin's oligarchs are astonished.
https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2025/05/19/poland-seizes-boeing-aircraft-parts-headed-for-russia-a89121

https://www.themoscowtimes.com/2023/05/26/michelin-sells-russian-tire-business-to-local-distributor-a81300

1/

How Russia's 35-mile armoured convoy ended in failure

How Russia's plan to overthrow Ukraine's government ended in embarrassing failure.

Show threadNicole Parsons5h ago

2/

Today was Tax Day for Americans, while billionaires paid little into public coffers.

Despots the world over admire the fleecing of US taxpayers & wish they had wealthy, complacent, & willing sheep like that.

https://americansfortaxfairness.org/tax-day-billionaires-growing-even-richer-trump-gop-tax-giveaways/

https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/columnist/2026/04/15/file-taxes-trump-one-big-beautiful-bill/89591503007/

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-14/a-tax-day-cash-drain-is-coming-for-calm-us-funding-markets

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2026/apr/15/tax-day-united-states-unequal-taxation

https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/04/tax-day-irs-filing/686805/

https://www.ms.now/opinion/income-tax-brackets-income-inequality-april-15

https://www.commondreams.org/news/zohran-tax-day

THIS TAX DAY AMERICA’S BILLIONAIRES ARE GROWING EVEN RICHER IN WAKE OF 2025 TRUMP-GOP TAX GIVEAWAYS - Americans For Tax Fairness

U.S. Billionaires Are Worth 31% More Since Trump Was Reelected This Tax Day 2026, after a year of fiscal policies enacted by President Trump and his Republican Congress that reward the wealthy, America’s 974 billionaires are flying high while workers and families struggle to afford the basics. In just the 16 months since Trump was …

Americans For Tax Fairness