Imagine a world in which western Europe was actually able to stick it to Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump simultaneously. As if. Back in the real world, there’s a remote possibility the Europeans might get their act together sufficiently to …
The narcissism of going ‘no contact’
“Trump is my mother and Vance is a roommate I had once.” The scribblers of the Reddit board “Raised by narcissists” were watching the Ukrainian President receive a tongue-lashing in the Oval Office on Friday. Another concurred: “Every single one …
Corporate America’s dirty trick
The venture capitalist Marc Andreessen is one of the most forthright individuals in Silicon Valley. Yet even this billionaire maintains that his fellow elites have been muzzled. Interviewed by Joe Rogan last November, Marc Andreessen said that many of his …
Britain’s information war on America
European and British politicians appeared shocked by J.D. Vance’s blunt speech in Munich last month. The US Vice President declared Washington’s top security concern to be “the threat from within” the Nato alliance and castigated assembled leaders for their increasingly …
China is back in business
In his glory days, Jack Ma, billionaire founder of Alibaba, was hailed as the embodiment of Chinese innovation. The young and online christened him “Daddy Ma”, and dreamed of emulating his rags-to-riches life story — from a humble English teacher …
Can America control its oligarchs?
When you hear the word “oligarch”, you might imagine someone like Farkhad Akhmedov, one of the 50 wealthiest Russians. In his book Mastering the Universe, economics professor Rob Larson writes that Akhmedov’s personal superyacht features a pair of helipads, a …
How MAGA got hooked on supplements
Little did I know when I started on my health regime of Flintstones vitamins, a chewable C and two daily doses of Sancerre that I was partaking in a nearly half-trillion-dollar global market, the tentacles of which have now lured …
Trump’s American utopia doesn’t exist
Politics involves a subtle balance of optimism and pessimism. Hence the two faces of Donald Trump: the grim-faced mug shot from the courtroom, with the frown of an elderly gorilla being taunted by his keepers, and the smiley-faced demagogue whose …
Meet the original MAGA imperialist
Amid all the hand-wringing about Donald Trump Making Greenland Great Again, it’s worth noting that #47 was hardly the first president to envision America as one great swath of global real estate, rightfully his. For as it turns out, imagining …
Can Trump make William McKinley great again?
If America’s 45th presidency was founded on the promise of Making America Great Again, Donald Trump’s priorities appear to have shifted for its 47th. Now, in part, it’s about Making McKinley Great Again.
It’s been more than 120 years since …
Europe is clinging to yesterday
And so, farewell to the last of the trans-Atlantic US presidents. Donald Trump’s inauguration marks the end of an era: Zeitenwende as the Germans call it. And no, the Europeans won’t be alright.
Over the weekend I was re-reading The …
Britain’s post-imperial delusion
I only salvaged a few objects from my late dad’s home when it was cleared. But these included two that could be said to bookend his era of British history. The first was a barometer, presented to a Harrington ancestor …
Is Elon the new Enoch?
In the opening of E. H. Gombrich’s A Little History of the World, there’s a lovely metaphor of the work of an historian. History, he writes, is like a bottomless well stretching into eternity, visible only by human recollection falling …
Jimmy Carter: the Sunday-school president
Poor old Jimmy Carter. The most decent man ever to be President of the United States, yet with an irrevocable air of haplessness. His admirers, quite rightly — and with an earnestness that emulates their hero — celebrate his four-decade-long …
Here comes the anti-woke economy
PublicSquare, America’s finest anti-woke online marketplace, is spreading the Christmas cheer. It’s been hocking “Right to Bare Arms Christmas Ornaments” and, in the spirit of good will towards men, a kid-sized, ride-on Toyota Land Cruiser in combat colours — as …