The same, yet different … for now
A friend writes to offer an article by Christian Esch, a German journalist, about how Russia’s assault on Ukraine has changed Moscow as came to know it over more than a decade of reporting from there. The change has not been for the better. Sensible people in press and media have left the country or […]
What took so long?
In May 2021, four months after the end of his presidency, the National Archives and Records Administration asked him to return materials that Trump had hauled to Mar-a-Lago, but which are owned by the public and administered by the US Government. Only in February 2022, after nine months of unsuccessful negotiation [sic] with Trump’s people, […]
What’s the big legal deal about executing a search warrant on a former president?
Jack Goldsmith, Deputy AG under George W. Bush, worries about Garland’s “using criminal process against former President Trump”. In support, he cites “sensible” commentators (George Will, Damon Linker, David Brooks) who believe that Garland “made a mistake, perhaps a disastrous one, in executing the search warrant at Mar-a-Lago”. In particular, he quotes Will’s concern with […]
Summer 2022: Tour d’horizon
And so, the world heads into the summer of 2022. The livin’ is easy even if reason, never abundant, continues to suffer from supply chain disruptions worldwide. Tolerance, like Marxism before it, is headed for the great dust heap that is “history”. It was worth a try, but the deteriorating quality of human capital diminishes chances […]
Russia Gets What it Wants
It’s been three months since Russia decided to bludgeon Ukraine into submission. To date, despite daily doses of “information” coming out of Moscow, the Russian government has left the world to speculate as to why and to what end. And to struggle with language: how does one even find words adequate to describe what Russia, […]
The Return of Trump and the Ménage à Trois
The remarkable Dan Froomkin speculates about media’s wanting Trump to run—and win—in 2024. He concludes: “I don’t think the mainstream media really wants Trump to win again. But I have a hard time explaining its behavior in any other way.” This mistakenly credits media with a sense of responsibility to the public. Froomkin admirably believes […]
$800 Billion for This? (Or, Taiwan is Toast.)
Washington’s decision to abstain from opposing by force Russia’s invasion of Ukraine reveals a truth about the $800+ billion the US wants to spend in the next 365 days on military matters: none of the muscle is intended for use against powers of equal heft, i.e., China or Russia or India. Smaller countries had better beware. Since […]
Une présidence Le Pen et les trois sports nationaux de France
La sonnette d’alarme sonne en France et parmi ses alliés : Macron pourrait perdre face à Le Pen lors du prochain second tour de l’élection présidentielle. Beaucoup de ceux qui sont mécontents du résultat du premier tour pourraient s’abstenir. Zemmour (7% au premier tour) appelle ses électeurs à voter pour Le Pen. Même les électeurs […]
How Washington Green-Lighted Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine
Why did the US reject military intervention in Ukraine when news broke in December that Russia had moved its army to the border with Ukraine? Why did it publicly say so? And why, six weeks into the carnage and taking technocratic fustiness to extremes, does Washington share intelligence but not “data that would enable ‘real-time […]
Pure Speculation on a “Strategic Mistake” by Putin
Russia’s assault on Ukraine has stimulated what can, for once, be called a “public conversation”. It’s in contrast to the usual unendurable hyenal screeching that comes with important public issues in Western democracies. Maybe it’s the nature of war which (too briefly) mutes the shrillness of the overabundance of quarter-wits. Erudite and knowledgeable people share […]
The Biggest Danger is Western “Recklessness”?
Hans Kundnani, director of the Europe program at Chatham House, a British think tank, warns us about going “too far” in our opposition to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. He says the West’s “earlier inaction has exacted a heavy price,” but sees its current reaction as “dangerous” “overcompensat[ion]”. He first aims to establish his bona fides […]
Is it Right to Encourage the Destruction of Ukraine?
The West has created a moral dilemma for itself. Its characteristic refusal to prevent (rather than belatedly react to) bad things, and its refusal to provide Ukraine what it needs most to fend off Russia, requires it to ask itself: is it defensible to encourage Ukrainians to continue to resist an onslaught, the outcome of […]
Two Bits of Goofy Thinking
As with other civilized versions of our species, am caught in the dilemma between attention and distraction. Helplessness in the face of barbarism is excruciating. We want to know what is happening, chiefly in hope that the right side—and there very much IS a right side—will prevail. But hope is a thin reed. The news, […]
Russia Can’t Lose
In the latest example of judging Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Liana Fix and Michael Kimmage tell us that “Putin has made a strategic blunder by invading Ukraine. He has misjudged the political tenor of the country, which was not waiting to be liberated by Russian soldiers. He has misjudged the United States, the European Union, […]
If I were Putin
Success. Am putting the world back in order. I have everyone’s attention. Yes, the West howls. It (yet again) threatens sanctions. But when it comes to the choice between money and principle, we in Moscow know that the commercial interests in the West make politicians there dance like puppets. The daily stream of finger-wagging pronouncements […]