Random stuff I find interesting and you may not.
Renaming the Gulf of Mexico? Bullying Canada? Threatening war against Denmark over Greenland? To me, these are not expressions of greatness but signs of a smallness. They diminish America. This “might makes right” business is unexceptional — bog-standard throughout history — rather than exceptional. ‘True Patriot Love’ Full blown idiocracy Related Posts“The New Normal”: New … Read more
If Obama had said that . . .” “If Obama had done that . . .” We often heard those lines during Donald Trump’s first term as president. The lines had grown tiresome by March 2017 or so (a couple of months into that term). But they regularly applied. I thought of them last week. … Read more
Paul Ingrassia is President Trump’s new liaison to the Department of Justice. In April 2023, between Trump’s administrations, he wrote, “Without Trump, Putin is the most powerful leader in the international arena standing up for traditional Christianity and Western values — and it’s not even close.” This is a common line of thought in America. … Read more
Once again, Senator Mitch McConnell issues a warning about the Hungarian leader Mitch McConnell may not be at the center of the Republican Party anymore (Republican leader in the Senate though he is, for a few more months). But he is doing his best to warn Republicans, and the American Right, about their embrace of … Read more
At this date, it seems futile, if not quaint, to speak of character. A lot of us were writing about it in 2016. And we laid heavy emphasis on it in the Clinton years, of course — by “we,” I mean Republicans and conservatives. But “that ship has sailed.” (This is one of my least … Read more
In 2007, I wrote a piece called “Taiwan’s Two Dozen: Who will dare have relations with Free China?” The piece is not available on the Internet, or at least I have not been able to call it up. Perhaps craftier Googlers than I can do so. Anyway, at the time, those 16 years ago, Taiwan … Read more