The Weekly Sift

The world generally goes crazy when I take a week or two off. Trump threatened to “end” civilization in a nation of more than 90 million people, then announced a ceasefire to give Iran a chance to surrender, which it predictably did not do. Now Trump is threatening to blockade the Strait of Hormuz, a strategy no one really understands, least of all him. It’s a little like “You can’t burn down the house. I’ll burn down the house.”

Meanwhile, democracy had its best day in years: Sunday, Hungary decisively rejected the proto-Trump autocracy of Viktor Orbán. Orbán had rigged the system in such a way that only a landslide could unseat him — and the landslide came. I wasn’t sure how Orbán would respond to that, but he did the right thing and conceded.

I wish I could claim I had something to do with this. Purely coincidentally, I was on a tour that stopped in Budapest Thursday. So I was too late to see J. D. Vance campaign for Orbán, but too early for the opposition victory celebration. Still, I am getting satisfaction out of watching TV coverage and saying, “I know where they are.”

During my trip, I wandered through Czech, German, and Austrian history museums that gave me a little insight into nationalistic movements, which I’ll try to sum up in coming weeks. But I’m not yet sufficiently recovered from jet lag to do justice to the topic.

So this week the only post will be the weekly summary (unless the Iran note gets unreasonably long). I’ll try to get it out by noon.