A private ally of Orbán has bought Hungary's main book publisher and bookstore chain.

Hungary, like various other countries, is exploring how to create cryptic fascism, in which the institutions of the state nominally continue to work, but democracy ceases to be meaningful, This reminds me of how Octaviuss Caesar gave himself personal control of Rome while keeping the Republic's institutions nominally in function.

Six southern US states including Texas are suffering from an extreme heat wave.

When will Republicans admit that our actions are making this worse?

I have a hunch that northern Mexico is suffering from a heat wave too.

Opponents to Atlanta's cop city project are running a referendum campaign which seeks to cancel it entirely.

The city government, which seems to be motivated by something we can only guess at, tried several times to sabotage the petition drive.

Surely the would-be contractors see an opportunity to profit, but I doubt that the profit would be big enough to motivate such stiff insistence from the city government. I have a hunch that something nastier is at work, something more deeply related to right-wing politics.

I doubt that the contractors who would build it have enough money to gain that they would find it worth while to put a lot of money into stiffening politicians' support for the project.

Three Texas thugs face murder charges for killing Melissa Perez, who seemed to be freaking out but was not in a position to harm them significantly.

*Paris climate finance summit fails to deliver debt forgiveness plan.*