Chutzpah rules

"It is undeniable that...Ashkenazi Jews have high general intelligence. It is also undeniable that they are successful. But the level of Jewish financial, political and cultural success cannot be explained solely by their exceptional cognitive ability." @Bo Winegard

this links to Aporia article Does IQ alone explain Jewish success?, where they say with commendable candor

So it could be that some sort of self-deceptive positivity (e.g., chutzpah) is behind the difference, or that in rating their own personality Jews and gentiles use different reference groups. Either of these alternative interpretations would also be interesting. However, there are reasons to believe that the GFP reflects social effectiveness, and that Jews are especially socially effective.

нет ли тут...

Failed Counteroffensive

U.S. and Ukraine Search for a New Strategy After Failed Counteroffensive - это Gray Lady если чо

и русские разгулялись: Полянский объяснил, что будет с американским оружием на Украине. "антинародный режим Зеленского" не так часто пишут.

а тем временем Putin visits shipyard to oversee commissioning of new Russian nuclear submarines - это abcnews, во вполне умеренных тонах.

а вот картинки: ВВ пишет на крейсере Александр III: "С такими моряками, с такими кораблями и с таким оружием Россия будет чувствовать себя в безопасности. Удачи! В.Путин 11.12.2023"

вотэбаутизм детектед

Israeli protesters are calling for democracy. But what about the occupation of Palestinians? - это с похвальной прямотой пишет одна Tia Goldenberg аж в самых Associated Press (sic!).

Israel is being rocked by a wave of mass protests calling for the country’s democracy to be upheld. But the pro-democracy movement lacks any clear message of opposition to Israel’s open-ended military rule over millions of Palestinians.

ну и так далее. нет ли здесь вотэбаутизма и антисемитизма?

Case by Case

Biden Takes His Battle for Democracy Case by Case - с похвальной прямотой NYT разъясняет, что “Consistency is a challenge for most administrations when it comes to democracy and human rights concerns around the world, and this administration is no exception,” это они цитируют одного David J. Kramer, который служил в администрации under President George W. Bush, чтобы так уж не накидывались на Байдена, у республиканцев тоже были проблемы с демократией и правами человека.

годная статья:

Even some senior officials around Mr. Biden privately feel uncomfortable with the duality of his black-and-white approach, noting that some of America’s friends have rule of law without being particularly free (Singapore leaps to mind) while others are even less committed to Western notions of human rights but still are helpful allies (the United Arab Emirates, for example).

вот уж realpolitic во весь рост.

emissions free

Jesse Watters: This is why Kamala Harris is visiting Africa Is Kamala Harris, the black face of American colonialism? Well, she's there for the lithium and cobalt, the motherloads in the Congo, and it's mined by children as young as 4. - с похвальной прямотой пишет Fox.

статья в New York Post тоже не слишком комплиментарная. VP Kamala Harris repeats herself again on first stop of Africa trip: ...kept up her run of ponderous, head-scratching statements, но тут хотя бы lithium вежливо не упоминают.

зато towhnall.com откровенно пишут: But the one place Harris will not go is the Congo, where dangerous mines operate to satisfy the left's demands for an "emissions free" society through electric vehicles.

emissions free my ass

What made him finally snap

For years, Putin didn’t invade Ukraine. What made him finally snap in 2022? by @Anatol Lieven

подрывная статейка, включая

In recent months, the German and French leaders in 2015, Merkel and François Hollande, have declared that the Minsk 2 agreement on Donbas autonomy was only a manoeuvre on their part to allow the Ukrainians the time to build up their armed forces.

это звучало и раньше, конечно, однако не так откровенно. там есть еще всякое, в частности

Putin now seems to agree fully with Russian hardline nationalists that no western government can be trusted, and that the west as a whole is implacably hostile to Russia.

странно, с чего бы это он agree ... that no western government can be trusted - с ним по-человечески, а он...

rich coastal liberals

For some aspiring writers, the mood remains pessimistic. “My take is the only take and the one everyone knows to be true but only admits in private: the literary world only accepts work that aligns with the progressive/woke point of view of rich coastal liberals,”

...
“This explains why everything reads and sounds the same, from major publishing houses to vanity zines with a readership of 15.”

--The Long Shadow of ‘American Dirt’

...
Elizabeth Ellen, Hobart’s editor and the person who conducted the interview, posted a letter from the editor advocating for an atmosphere “in which fear is not the basis of creation, nor the undercurrent of discussion.”

это про American Dirt. 113,207 ratings однако. книжку, конечно, не прочту. да не очень-то и хотелось

‘unhinged’ rant

Al Gore goes on ‘unhinged’ rant about ‘rain bombs,' boiled oceans, other climate threats at Davos - это не про Трампа и не про Путина, а вовсе про поэта гражданина Гора. он еще там сказал, что

в NY Post целая забавная подборка The week in whoppers: NYT publisher’s fake-news double-down, Biden’s race-based car-insurance fib and more

он там еще сказал, что greenhouse gases is sending heat into the atmosphere that is equivalent to '600,000 Hiroshima' bombs ever day.

ZeroHedge: Al Gore Attempts Own 'Greta Moment'

NYT stays mum though

ну и русский МИД тоже в кои-то веки откровенно высказался:

Мнение Европейского еврейского конгресса, который призвал министра иностранных дел России Сергея Лаврова принести извинения за сравнение политики США и их союзников в отношении Москвы с действиями Адольфа Гитлера, не волнует российский МИД, заявили ТАСС в дипломатическом ведомстве.

On Jewish Vulgarity

With John Murray Cuddihy’s ‘The Ordeal of Civility’ and Yuri Slezkine’s ‘The Jewish Century,’ Tablet begins a three-part look at the once-vibrant Jewish trait of not caring what the goyim think.

это один David Mikics пишет аж в самом Tablet Magazine в статье On Jewish Vulgarity, во как.

ясное дело The Occidental Observer не мог пропустить такой случай и в свою очередь откликнулся статьей On Jewish Vulgarity. финал там ударный, начиная со слов "Moses, who I am assuming is Jewish..."

Therefore the [National Socialist] occupant made an effort in Poland to impose upon the Poles pornographic publications and movies.

ужос какой

все это напоминает батрахомиомахию борьбу между Новым миром и Нашим современником в славные годы запоя застоя.

see also The Anglo-Boer War and the Issue of Jewish Culpability

The Amorality of Power Politics

There has always been some demagoguery in Nasser, of course (as there has been in every national leader, Eastern or Western, of any importance), but something other than demagoguery accounts for the way he has consistently won his game with almost all players, certainly with the United States and the Soviets if not with the Israelis.

--The Game of Nations: The Amorality of Power Politics by Miles Copeland

там много подобных откровений.

At the same time, Mr. Kennan argued convincingly that if Europe was to be divided the blame should be placed on the Russians and not on ourselves. Winston Churchill, in a speech delivered at Fulton, Missouri, referred to the “Iron Curtain,” and the presence of President Truman at his side implied official U.S. Government endorsement of such an attitude. Apart from this one lapse, however, official policy was still to pretend that the “spirit of Yalta” guided our actions and that the United Nations, with understanding and cooperation between the great “peace-loving” powers, would maintain order throughout the world by thrashing things out between themselves in a civilized manner. Internal Government communications, written or oral, that indicated otherwise were marked TOP SECRET.

следует отметить использование кавычек и заглавных букв.

про выборы в Сирии стр. 46-47 замечательно смешно, следует читать весь длинный абзац со слов To say that the elections did not come up to our expectations would be an understatement. это все, по-моему, вполне можно отнести и к американскому вмешательству во Вьетнаме.

там же на стр 47 чудесная формулировка “coordinator of unconventional political activity” ну там все подряд надо читать, там полно таких фраз: Keeley loved the Syrians, and he persisted in a belief that they were “naturally democratic.”

Hinton has since grown up, but in those days he was a devout Goo-Goo—one who believes that even in a country like Syria, Good Government is not only desirable but possible. ... The first Hinton knew of the actual coup was on the day it happened. As he, Meade and I were making a reconnaissance tour of Damascus that morning, he fulminated at length on the theme: “I want to go on record as saying that this is the stupidest, most irresponsible action a diplomatic mission like ours could get itself involved in, and that we’ve started a series of these things that will never end.” He subsequently wrote a dispatch on the subject and sent it by slow boat to the Department, where it now gathers dust in the archives. Things have, of course, come out as he predicted. - pg 52

ex libris

no great surprise

It’s no great surprise that the European Parliament is engulfed in a corruption scandal - это CNN. ну они-то уж знают.

DW пишет: Belgian police seize €1.5 million in EU corruption scandal и Ignominy and disgrace in the European Parliament

а где рука Москвы?

selling their culture

Like many postcolonial people, the Na’vi now support themselves by selling a version of their culture to outsiders. --‘Avatar’ and the Mystery of the Vanishing Blockbuster

довольно интересная статья, в частности объясняет, как работает franchise и показывает разницу между prequel, reboot и spinoff.

Today it has been thoroughly demonstrated that superhero and fantasy movies are the best forms of intellectual property for the endless reiteration necessitated by the franchise model.

там же сравнение нескольких franchise. забавно описаны попытки сотворить пандорскую еду для ресторяна в парке развлечений:

This prompt was made even more challenging by a mandate that the food appear alien, while also looking and tasting familiar — or, in the words of one Imagineer, “like chicken” — enough to satisfy the average Disney visitor.

Imagineer - wow! и далее еда и напитки в Satu’li Canteen забавно описаны. и многое другое:

Waiting, by that point, seemed more entertaining than spending the rest of my evening in the park. As it turns out, a 3-D simulacrum of a 3-D movie kind of cancels itself out.

у автора определенно неплохо с чувством юмора.

Divorced from the dazzle of visual effects, I could see the aesthetic universe of “Avatar” for what it was: a glorified World Market sale section. The Na’vi alone were just a tiki-bar mishmash of traits that white people perceive as foreign: dreadlocks, beadwork, body mods, loincloths, feathers, cowrie shells. Compared with that of Hogwarts or Tatooine, the logic of their world seemed to lack imagination: What were the odds that, galaxies away, a society not only had two genders, but those genders were “male” and “female” — and the females were stacked?

феноменальная статья:

Here is probably a good place to disclose that when I first started working on this article, I had never seen “Avatar.” The film came out my senior year of high school, when I was still committed to the thought that nothing popular could ever be good. (I have spent my life revising and re-revising this position.)

и политика, и экономика - там все есть. и даже философия. комментарии тоже интересные. хорощо бы перевести, но текст слишком сложный для меня во многих отношениях.

похоже, автор - Jamie Lauren Keiles - nonbinary: I use they/them pronouns.

Isaiah Berlin sycophancy

Expressions of personal affection for Berlin are not hard to find. A rather embarrassing example of Berlin sycophancy comes from Maurice Bowra, who wrote: “Though like Our Lord and Socrates he does not publish much, he thinks and says a great deal and has had an enormous influence on our times”.

...

Rowse criticises the lack of substance in Berlin’s academic-intellectual approach.

...

In letters to Felix Frankfurter he was very candid about the ‘Israeli’ mentality: “the trouble about the Israelis is not only their partly unconscious conviction born of experience that virtue always loses and only toughness pays, but a great provincialism and blindness to outside opinion”

-- The Ambiguity of Intellectual Engagement: Towards a Reassessment of Isaiah Berlin’s Legacy by Jonathan Hogg

этот Jonathan Hogg?

Democratic Panic

Democratic Panic Rises as Virginia Loss Exposes the Party’s Weakness

Only the Women

Opinion

Michelle Goldberg
Only the Women Can Save Us Now, New York
Both men leading the Democratic mayoral primary are disasters.

потому что мир так устроен

Но к идеальному равновесию нам никогда не прийти, всегда будет ксенофобия, всегда будут богатые и бедные, потому что мир так устроен – есть ограниченное количество ресурсов, и они всегда распределяются неравным образом. Можно посадить диктатора, чтобы распределял он, но мы же знаем, что распределять он будет в основном себе. А люди вечно заняты тем, что им мало дали, и надо у кого-то отобрать.

- Алексей Цветков: "Писать стихи за все хорошее против всего плохого – это не совсем поэзия"

там еще много интересного, вот например

К равновесию ничего не приходит, это заблуждение. Кто сказал, что мир вообще так устроен, что всё катится к лучшему? Если ты ничего не починишь, ничего не исправится. А кто будет чинить, если тем, кто на это способен, затыкают рты? Это какая-то эволюция общества, но мы не знаем, по каким законам она происходит. Просвет, который начался с эпохи Просвещения и в котором мы живем по сей день, который поднял миллионы людей из нищеты и дал нам свободу, видимо, заканчивается. Я думаю, что прогресс на самом деле не заложен ни в идею вселенной, ни в идею человечества.

fortifying election

They were not rigging the election; they were fortifying it. - это из статьи в times.com The Secret History of the Shadow Campaign That Saved the 2020 Election

на нее многие обратили внимание, но я бы ожидал еще большего шума, учитывая ее наглую похвальную откровенность.

Donald Trump Jr blasted for peddling new 'fortified' election conspiracy theory - ожидаемая реакция со всех сторон

via

тут слово fortifying следовало бы взять в тройные кавычки (если такие бывают)

см. также The martyrdom of Mike Pence - ребята расчехлились полностью. что ж, надо скорее пожинать плоды...

Why Violence Works

The West’s global dominance for most of the past millennium is in large part a function of its capacity for violence.

...

Mao corrected Clausewitz by characterizing politics as a sequel to or even an epiphenomenon of violence—a continuation of violence by other means.

...

...our revulsion at Mao’s practices should not blind us to the accuracy of his observation. Violence and the threat of violence are the most potent forces in political life.

...

People say that problems cannot be solved by the use of force, that violence, as the saying goes, is not the answer. That adage appeals to our moral sensibilities. But whether or not violence is the answer depends on the question being asked. For better or worse, violence usually provides the most definitive answers to three major questions of political life: statehood, territoriality, and power. 

Why Violence Works by Benjamin Ginsberg

published in The Chronicle of Higher Education - how very appropriate

Почему насилие работает

see also - память стала подводить

by and for

New York magazine published a scathing inside look at The New York Times, which details the “open secret” that the paper is “published by and for coastal liberals” and ponders if it “can again become the paper of record" - Several New York Times staffers agreed with Bari Weiss' scathing resignation letter, report claims [local copy of Times Change]

приводит на память ...The New Yorker, the parish magazine of East Coast liberalism - это 4 года назад

meanwhile New Yorker Fires Jeffrey Toobin After Zoom Masturbation Incident and @RealJamesWoods says CNN is wanker heaven. He’ll be fine

нет ли тут антисемитизма