Author Archives: stephenkmacksd

I just have to wonder at the utterly bankrupt Andrew Sullivan’s latest moralizing essay, and its first paragraph: “There is no wealth but life,” the great critic John Ruskin once wrote. You can hear that faith in the words of … Continue reading →

Neo-Liberals, your ersatz Utopianism is not just in decline, but is on the Critical List! The Pandemic signals the revival of the long dormant notion, that the Nation State, as conceived in the Age of Enlightenment, and its sine qua … Continue reading →

Headline: The tragedy of two failing superpowers Sub-headline: To address the pandemic, China and the US must not only function. They must function together https://www.ft.com/content/ea1563e8-725f-11ea-ad98-044200cb277f Just to focus on one paragraph of Mr. Wolf’s latest encyclical heavily garnished with graphs/charts. … Continue reading →

Mr. Ganesh’s literary overlay, Dickens vs. Orwell provides that frame, on power of The Pandemic is stylistically – I can’t compare it to Tom Wolfe’ s ‘snap, crackle, pop’ -for it is too sophisticated, in its way. And reaches an … Continue reading →

The panic of ‘The Elites’ is just reaching a slow simmer: Headline: Coronavirus ‘medicine’ could trigger social breakdown Sub-headline: Jacob Wallenberg tells governments to consider economic threat from crisis ‘Jacob Wallenberg has warned governments to weigh the economic threat from … Continue reading →

Never has Political Melodrama, cliche and understatement been so successfully wedded? Mr. Ganesh’s opening paragraph:  Addressing a traumatised nation, the US president fumbled. His Oval Office speech lacked command and old doubts resurfaced about his fitness for the role. Much … Continue reading →

Title Mr. Rachman’s latest essay  ‘The Myth of Globalism Under Threat’. When all else fails melodrama! Not forgetting that Rachman’s faith in ‘Globalism’, recalls to me the long forgotten Eric Hoffer, and his book ‘The True Believer’.  ‘Globalization’ is, in … Continue reading →

Headline: The crushing burden on Mnuchin’s shoulders Sub-headline: Treasury secretary enters war against Covid-19 with handicaps, but he’s all America has got First the melodramatic headline and sub-headline, and then this bit of political kitsch: No one has ever thought … Continue reading →

Barry Goldwater, who won his first election contest, in a Mayor’s race, based upon the lie of the infiltration of ‘gangsters’ into civic life! This is the best that Mr. Ganesh can muster? He tries to mask his ignorance of … Continue reading →

Headline: The Political Media’s Blurred Reality Sub-headline:How market pressures and professional hubris have undone campaign journalism Mr. Shapiro manages to make American Politics as practiced in 2020, sing like a Pop Tune, at the bottom of the charts, of another … Continue reading →