distinguishing quality

It may be remarked that the harsh opinion of Machiavelli has been more widespread in England and the United States than in the nations of Continental Europe. This is no doubt natural, because the distinguishing quality of Anglo-Saxon politics has always been hypocrisy, and hypocrisy must always be at pains to shy away from the truth. The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom, by James Burnham

pdf

скверный Трамп

Trump Lets Democrats Dominate the Public Debate Over Biden’s Future - вот ведь какой мерзавец, позволяет демократам доминировать 😂

но это NYT лукавят: Трамп назвал Байдена "кучей дерьма" и выразил уверенность, что он снимется с выборов. RT подтверждает с массой подробностей: Trump caught on camera insulting Biden

нет штобы дедушку с праздником поздравить 🤡

impartiality

BBC boss claims impartial news is 'increasingly becoming an affront' to audiences who feel balanced coverage is 'an attack on their values' - это Daily Mail via

а в марте Guardian сообщала: BBC boss defends broadcaster’s impartiality amid ‘storms of social media’. это, правда, другой босс..

вы уж там договоритесь как-нибудь, а то вас не поймешь. тем временм Sunak refuses to say whether he told gambling row aide the election date - how very interesting. see also @ BBC

ну и заодно - еще про британские чудеса: Nigel Farage to boycott BBC over ‘biased’ Question Time audience. может закроют лавочку наконец - я имею в виду BBC.

и наконец Rishi Sunak "Hurt" After Right-Wing Party Calls Him "Paki" 😂

legitimate attempt

There was never an executive order or memo ordering or even suggesting a coup go forward. The American position was couched in terms of "not stopping a legitimate attempt" to change the government of South Vietnam. --The Politically Incorrect Guide to the Vietnam War

а тут все наоборот: The Best and the Brightest by David Halberstam

Among those dazzled by the Administration team was Vice-President Lyndon Johnson. After attending his first Cabinet meeting he went back to his mentor Sam Rayburn and told him with great enthusiasm how extraordinary they were, each brighter than the next, and that the smartest of them all was that fellow with the Stacomb on his hair from the Ford Motor Company, McNamara. “Well, Lyndon,” Mister Sam answered, “you may be right and they may be every bit as intelligent as you say, but I’d feel a whole lot better about them if just one of them had run for sheriff once.” It is my favorite story in the book, for it underlines the weakness of the Kennedy team, the difference between intelligence and wisdom, between the abstract quickness and verbal fluency which the team exuded, and the true wisdom, which is the product of hard-won, often bitter experience. Wisdom for a few of them came after Vietnam.

убедительно пишет Halberstam. ох не любил он восточную элиту. что протестантскую, что католическую. да и западную тоже. но в Кеннеди он положительно влюблен.

"The Best and the Brightest" is ostensibly about how shining intellectuals -- primarily McGeorge Bundy, Robert , and Dean Rusk -- of the Kennedy White House trapped America in Vietnam. ... In fact, I came away from the book with the keen sense that these "intellectuals" were just arrogant and shallow, self-serving and power-hungry individuals.

this is from amazon review A Major Disappointment

в 9-й главе он интересно рассказывает про Walt Rostow. вспоминается афоризм про Россию, где за год меняется все, а за 100 лет - ничего. к США это тоже относится.

fact-checkers

The censors and "fact" checkers, thinking themselves enlightened, are among the most ignorant people on the planet. --Jay Bhattacharya @DrJBhattacharya

от себя добавлю: some of them are not ignorant - just hypocritical. and/or ignorant of their own hypocrisy.

and again - who will fact-check the fact-checkers? who will debunk the debunkers?  

Existential malaise

Existential malaise — the feeling that everything is bullshit — might be the price of peace. - это из substack с хорошим названием Everything Is Bullshit одного David Pinsof (@DavidPinsof).

забавная статья, много интересных ссылок. вот, к примеру, The Execution Hypothesis for the Evolution of a Morality of Fairness - это тот же Wrangham, что написал The Goodness Paradox. там упоминается ‘reverse dominance hierarchy’, и вот Reverse Dominance Hierarchies - review by Rob Henderson.

еще Morality and other weapons - необъятное количество примеров и ссылок (часто на самого автора, Rob Kurzban). начинается с хорошей шутки (в которой есть небольшая доля шутки):

Cynics will tell you that the Golden Rule is that whoever has the gold makes the rules.

кстати о доле шутки - это приводит на память stereotype accuracy

он написал книжку Why Everyone (Else) Is a Hypocrite: Evolution and the Modular Mind. еще в своей статье он приводит ссылку на Extract from the Speech by Adolf Hitler, January 30, 1939

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.

не сотворил женщиной

«Благодарю тебя, Господи, за то, что не создал меня женщиной» - это перевод статьи из Svenska Dagbladet. ну то, что это слова из еврейской молитвы - всем давно известно, а вот то, что существует целая индустрия правильного объяснения этой фразы для всяких антисемитов феминисток - этого я не знал. впрочем, этого следовало ожидать, конечно. как и в случае с Авраамом и сестрой его Сарой. вот просто для примера За то, что не сделал меня женщиной...

и вот кстати из свежей NYT: 18 Hasidic Schools Failed to Provide Basic Education, New York City Finds

геройский Макрон

это картинка из france24, геройский Макрон shifts stance on police violence. a BBC поясняет для невежд: France shooting: Macron accuses rioters of exploiting teen killed by police. а DW называет вещи своими именами: France riots: 45,000 police deployed to restore order

а вот и Gray Lady вмешалась: France Splits Into Rival Camps Over Police Shooting of a Teenager - што ж, пора уже.

но самое трогательное вот: Macron Blames Video Games For Riots

а впереди выходные.

What is needed in France is a stunning display of force. @DarrenJBeattie

Prigozhin in Paris?

ну и в завершение - снова из france24: Who was Nahel M., the teenager shot dead by French police?

He was "everything" to his mother, a quiet boy in his Paris neighbourhood, struck down by a policeman's bullet that has sparked riots and soul searching in a country where police have long faced accusations of singling out minorities.

America's Second Crusade

Neutrality legislation, passed by overwhelming majorities in both houses of Congress and adopted in finally revised form on May 1, 1937, completely repudiated Wilson’s position.

The Act in its final form provided that “whenever the President shall find that there exists a state of war between or among two or more foreign states”, certain measures should automatically come into effect.

There was to be an embargo on the sale of arms, munitions, and implements of war to all belligerents. American citizens were forbidden to travel on belligerent ships and to buy or sell securities of warring powers. Such products as cotton, scrap iron, and oil could be sold to belligerents, but could not be transported in American ships. This was the so-called cash-and-carry arrangement.

начало тут. познавательная книга, цитировать можно без конца.

I give you my deep and unalterable conviction, based on years of experience as a worker in the field of international peace, that by the repeal of the embargo the United States will more probably remain at peace than if the law remains as it stands today.

more probably... highly likely...

That American sympathy is ninety-eight per cent with the Finns in their effort to stave off invasion of their own soil is by now axiomatic.

это почему же ninety-eight разрешите спросить

A president who cannot entrust the people with the truth betrays a certain lack of faith in the basic tenets of democracy. But because the masses are notoriously shortsighted and generally cannot see danger until it is at their throats our statesmen are forced to deceive them into an awareness of their own long run interests.

вот, собственно, и все, что нужно знать о демократии.

Stalin, who loved to practice the old maxim, Divide and Rule, could have wished nothing better. - интересно, где он этому научился? у хулиганов во дворе? ну и невозможно не процитировать

Churchill tried to reach a satisfactory separate agreement with Stalin. As is shown in another chapter, Churchill took the initiative in the dismemberment of Poland at Teheran. In an attempt to “ compensate" Poland for the territory which he wished to hand over to Stalin, the British Prime Minister threw the weight of his influence behind the idea of expelling millions of Germans from the eastern part of that country.

там дальше цитата из старины Черчилля как раз об этом.

на стр. 189 он пишет про разговор Хопкинса со Сталиным о Польше, упрекая Сталина во лжи. на самом деле нагло врет сам автор, Chamberlin. и по поводу второго фронта - скверное вранье и передергивание. ну не любит Chamberlin русских и Сталина, но передергивать-то зачем?

The Morgenthau Plan, which Roosevelt and Churchill had approved at Quebec, recommended “forced German labor outside Germany” as a form of reparations.

еще

абсолютно бесполезно

"Я знаете в этой связи вспоминаю то, что было сказано много-много лет назад различными людьми. Вот один из наших императоров как-то на вопрос, сложно ли управлять такой огромной страной Россией, он сказал: управлять Россией совсем не сложно, но абсолютно бесполезно. Вот с тех пор очень многое изменилось", - сказал Путин.

это в ria.ru, бля буду

а тем временем Biden trips and falls during graduation ceremony, recovers quickly. вот за это recovers quickly кто-то в Reuters получит Пулитцеровскую, бля буду

But people close to Mr. Biden, including many of his staff members, insist he remains very fit and often has the energy to make it through long, grueling days. He exercises daily, they say, and is not overweight. --Biden Falls Onstage at Air Force Commencement

ключевое слово тут often

nuclear disarmament

Japan's atomic bomb survivors hope G-7 firms up support for nuclear disarmament - это NPR. firms up my ass.

МИД России назвал деятельность G7 насмешками над историей и здравым смыслом - а это lenta.ru. вот соглашусь.

Confident Yet Wary

Confident Yet Wary - это как, хочем знать? вы уж либо трусы́ либо крестик.

и еще из радостных новостей: Say Goodbye to Daily Hotel Room Cleaning

The pandemic put a pause on many hotels’ guaranteed once-a-day cleanings. Now many of them are making the change permanent, even saying guests prefer it.

еще финансовых новостей: ‘Bonkers’ Bond Trading May Be Sending a Grim Signal About the Economy

и коротко о медицине: How to Escape ‘Faux Self-Care’

The multibillion-dollar industry, which sells crystals and massages as balms for burnout and depression, is not unlike her experience of joining a cult, she says... convincing consumers “that if you do more of this one particular thing, eventually things will feel better — when in fact, the only purpose of a juice cleanse or a massage is to keep you buying more of the thing.”

Obama vs DeSantis

Or as Orwell famously put it, "Actions are held to be good or bad, not on their own merits, but according to who does them." @GeorgeSzamuely

это по поводу

Media went from supporting Obama’s view that Ukraine is not a vital interest to describing the same view as dangerous and absurd when DeSantis says it. @MaxAbrahms

wsj разъясняют

The Huwara Riot Was No ‘Pogrom’: Anti-Palestinian violence comes from the margins of Israeli society. Anti-Jewish violence comes from the Palestinian mainstream.

ну как скажете. aljazeera считает иначе, однако: Hate speech and pogroms in the West Bank. вы уж там разберитесь...

strong moral character

People who self-report a strong moral character have a tendency to hypocrisy. @DegenRolf

in a single word

I have long said America is a nation that can be defined in a single word: Possibilities. - это дедушка Байден вчера. а сегодня Marina Do пишет в комментариях к посту про Гаагу:

Мой вариант - ... in a single word - hypocrisy.

grievance and paranoia

The three major candidates to Mr. Macron’s right have marinated in a common culture of grievance and paranoia.

...American-inspired “wokistes” and “islamo-leftists” — terms wantonly used as synonyms for progressive activists, intellectuals and politicians — are concocting a plot to emasculate France and its republican traditions.

-- The Man at the Center of the French Election Isn’t Even on the Ballot

nyt точно гондурас Франция беспокоит. ясный пень, когда кого не надо grievance - это paranoia и wantonly

NPR guests

Tucker Carlsson comments on NPR guests (and listeners too): completely ignorant and completely self-assured.

еще про NPR: NPR reporting on Supreme Court mask controversy merits clarification [clarification my ass] see also How Many Supreme Court Justices Must Deny NPR's Reporting Before Media Outlets Believe Them?

"Unseemly": NPR Refuses To Correct Story After Supreme Court Deems It False - вспоминается jelly and slime

Whore of New York

Whore of New York: A Confession - bestseller in Study of Pornography my ass

в nyt ‘Whore of New York’ Reflects on Sex, Love and Labor - это то самое окно Овертона

Let’s start with the title. “Whore of New York” employs the great and underused [Character] of [Place] naming convention — one seen in works like “Anne of Green Gables” and “The Merchant of Venice” and “Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street.” I like this titling practice for its orienting purposes. It’s as though the author has drawn a mall map and put a big YOU ARE HERE sticker on it for the reader.

naming convention my ass - это авторка напряженно думала как начать статью, чтобы не сразу про блядей. и придумала.

So where are we in Liara Roux’s memoir? We are in New York, with a whore. (“Whore” being the author’s word, obviously.)

author’s word, obviously это имеется в виду автор книги, а не автор статьи. автор статьи никогда бы не употребила по своей воле такое нехорошее слово.

вообще там надо каждую строчку комментировать: As with most memoirs, the “childhood” section of the book is the least interesting. Things get cooking when Roux finds her calling. - читается как юмористический рассказ.

и финальный аккорд:

But for every few clumsy or fuzzy sentences, there’s one straight out of Edith Wharton: “Perhaps while I am at work, I am like a very nice teacup in a fine dining restaurant: used by many, but handled for the most part with care. I certainly have no aspirations to be kept in a cabinet somewhere, gathering dust.”