Holy shit.

[aburka@hachyderm.io]

@cstross I mean https://www.cpac.org/post/cpac-will-return-to-hungary-for-third-year-in-2024

[theogrin@chaosfem.tw]

@cstross

I'm gleefully awaiting the sudden realization amongst the general public that these organizations are all one big circle-jerk of grifting.

(Admittedly, I keep my glee in a pickle jar because otherwise it'll escape over the long years.)

[simonbp@social.linux.pizza]

@cstross IIRC the NRA was mostly Russian funded and hit a cash crunch when the Ukraine invasion cut that off.

[djr2024@mastodon.social]

@cstross Also likely to cause problems for the egregious #mattgoodwin in #uk

[c_dan4th@mstdn.social]

@simonbp @cstross I was wondering about why we hadn’t heard much from those assholes lately.

[kalshann@mastodon.social]

@theogrin @cstross
[most dramatic sarcasm voice possible] WHHHHHAAAATTTT?

[virtualbri@mastodon.online]

@cstross Well, that certainly makes a lot of sense in retrospect. Gonna be an awkward CPAC Hungary 2027

[graydon@canada.masto.host]

@cstross There's this sense in which the point of taking over governments for the global right-wing conspiracy is to fund taking over other governments.

Looting a sovereign entity is, after all, about the most profitable thing you can do in one-lifetime time frames.

[darkling@mstdn.social]

@graydon @cstross So, private equity... for governments?

[graydon@canada.masto.host]

@darkling Pretty much, yes.

Only with greater scope; private equity firms don't have the ability of a sovereign to make things legal.

(You can view everything since 1500 as a process of enclosure and not be hugely wrong in terms of economic history. Which is a detached way of saying "farming human lifespan".)

@cstross

[oddhack@mstdn.social]

@cstross let CPAC in for the conference, then arrest them all to investigate corruption allegations. They can share a cell block with Orban.

[rootwyrm@weird.autos]

@cstross why are people surprised? Serious question. Because there was never any question at all that CPAC was getting paid cold hard cash to party in Hungary. Everyone knew there were just innumerable violations of pretty much every law regarding foreign influence and bribery on the books going on the whole time.

[kierkegaanks@beige.party]

@cstross let’s guess where the money came from. Taxpayers in Hungary or Russia

[ghostonthehalfshell@masto.ai]

@Kierkegaanks @cstross

I rather think that it was financed through Russia.

[rameshgupta@mastodon.social]

️ @cstross

>> #Hungary’s New Leader Reveals #ViktorOrbán Was Paying #CPAC.

>> #Magyar noted that his government will … no longer finance CPAC or other right-wing institutions abroad.

Surely #Orban was just a conduit but the money into CPAC actually flowed from #Russia.

Wish #Biden's DOJ had not scattered #Mueller evidence to the wind and had followed through with investigating #Trump's money trail to #Russia. What a dereliction of duty!

[dm_ronin@mstdn.social]

@cstross there was more from Magyar's press conference, and far worse https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2026-04-13/hungary-foreign-minister-is-shredding-eu-documents-magyar-says

(as for CPAC funded by Orban, it was a well-known fact for several years)

[extra_special_carbon@mastodon.world]

@rameshgupta @cstross The least Biden could have done is drop the cases so they coild release the evidence. i mean once Trump was elected, the cases were dead, sk just put it out there.

[rameshgupta@mastodon.social]

️ @Extra_Special_Carbon @cstross

>> The least Biden could have done is drop the cases so they coild release the evidence. i mean once Trump was elected, the cases were dead, sk just put it out there

The LEAST #Biden could have done is appoint a competent Attorney General and not kneecap him/her with a preemptive declaration of his own desire to avoid all #Trump investigations.

What a dereliction of duty from a man who knew everything about Trump from the #Obama days!

Biden hopes to avoid divisive Trump investigations, preferring unity

Joe Biden has privately told advisers he doesn't want his presidency consumed by investigations into Donald Trump, five people familiar with the discussions said.

NBC News (www.nbcnews.com)

[geos@toot.community]

@cstross
Yeah, if you follow the money it should probably be called CCCP(ac).

[extra_special_carbon@mastodon.world]

@rameshgupta @cstross That would have bern nice too, but I don’t think it qualifies as “least”. I guess technically, what he did was least, but the one slightly more than that, was release all of the documents.