OUR MAN IN AMERICA IV: THE DEATH OF EXPERTISE
Article originally published in London in The Jackal Let’s face it: expertise has not had a very good century. George W. Bush’s foreign policy experts spent their early months scrutinizing Russia; they ignored al-Qaeda. Later the experts called Saddam Hussein’s possession of weapons of mass destruction “a slam dunk,’’ and proclaimed subprime mortgages safe, because …
SEPTEMBER 2017: “BIGGEST MISTAKE IN MODERN POLITICAL HISTORY”
9.15 Explosion at London’s Parsons Green tube station 9.14 The Indians win their 22nd consecutive game 9.14 California lawmakers late Friday sent Gov. Jerry Brown a bill that would require presidential candidates to make their tax returns public before appearing on the state’s ballot. 9.14 Chuck and Nancy say they cut a deal with Trump …
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AUGUST 2017: “THE PRESIDENT SPEAKS FOR HIMSELF”
8.31 John McCain: Our entire system of government — with its checks and balances, its bicameral Congress, its protections of the rights of the minority — was designed for compromise. It seldom works smoothly or speedily. It was never expected to. It requires pragmatic problem-solving from even the most passionate partisans. It relies on compromise …
AN UNDESERVED MONUMENT, AN OVERDUE GOODBYE
When I was a boy, when I was very interested in the Civil War. I can’t say why, exactly, but at that time, it was an easy interest to feed. The centennial of the war had begun, and there was a constant flow of features in newspapers and magazines, .shows on television, and movies, and …
AUGUST 2017: “VERY FINE PEOPLE ON BOTH SIDES”
8.18 Bannon is out. Upon leaving, he told The Weekly Standard “The Trump presidency that we fought for, and won, is over,” he told the Weekly Standard on Friday. “We still have a huge movement, and we will make something of this Trump presidency. But that presidency is over.” Also: “I’ve got my hands back …
OUR MAN IN AMERICA III: THE NEW COLD WAR
In my most vivid Cold War memory, I am standing on the asphalt-covered parking lot that served as the playground for the St. Anthony of Padua Parish School, in Baltimore, a short 45 miles from Washington DC. It was lunchtime on some day in October 1962, and my fellow fourth grader Louis Mangione had just …
THOMAS FLEMING, RIP
On July 25, the historian and novelist and historian Thomas Fleming died at the age of 90. He was a wroking writer, the author of 23 novels, including the bestselling The Officers’ Wives and 25 books on American history, including the widely acclaimed account of the Burr Hamilton conflict, Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and …
AUGUST 2017 “THIS DEAL WILL MAKE ME LOOK LIKE A DOPE!”
8.11 President Trump said that he will not rule out “military action” against Venezuela. 8.11 Trump: “Military solutions are now fully in place, locked and loaded, should North Korea act unwisely. Hopefully Kim Jong Un will find another path!” 8.9 North Korea threatened to attack the US territory of Guam just hours after President Trump …
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JULY 2017: “IF IT’S WHAT YOU SAY, I LOVE IT”
7.31 Now Scaramuci is out! 7.31 Paul Krugman in the Times: “The Republican health care debacle was the culmination of a process of intellectual and moral deterioration that began four decades ago, at the very dawn of modern movement conservatism — that is, during the very era anti-Trump conservatives now point to as the golden …