Author Archives: stephenkmacksd

If you are summoned to be a juror in an American Court, the last thing the judge says to the assembled citizens, just before the individual interviews begin, is that the law court is above morality! When I was summoned … Continue reading →

Franklin Graham learned evangelical politics from his father Billy. Graham pere, a former tent preacher, on the road to bourgeois political respectability engaged in a more adroit sub rosa politicking. Some might identify this as a lack of courage or … Continue reading →

The cult of Reagan is all the Republicans have! The warm cuddly Conservative? The 1980 Nashoba County Fair speech that opened his first campaign for President is an example of his ‘kindness’ and political flexibility? ‘I believe in state’s rights; … Continue reading →

Gone are the beguiling aphorisms of Mr. Ganesh’s tribute to Lynton Crosby of December 28,2015. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/a40adeb4-a973-11e5-955c-1e1d6de94879.html#axzz3wlRLdCH0 The politics of a special kind of fear, except for the maladroit dismissal of Jeremy Corbyn as politically inconceivable- how a variety of inevitable … Continue reading →

Read Pankaj Mishra’s essay titled ‘A generation of failed politicians has trapped the west in a tawdry nightmare‘ here: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jan/01/generation-failed-politicians-elite-liberal-values?CMP=twt_gu On Tony Judt, who is the central thinker in Mr. Mishra’s essay, see these two essays: Dylan Riley’s Tony Judt: … Continue reading →

One has to read almost the entirety of Dominique Moisi’s essay before one reaches something that resembles political rationalism, instead of respectable bourgeois political hand-wringing. ‘More seriously, if France wants to continue to present itself to the world as the … Continue reading →

Keeping hope alive? According to a report at Reuters Ukrainians in the year 2015 experienced an inflation rate of 44%! Up 24.9 % from 2014! http://www.reuters.com/article/us-ukraine-centralbank-inflation-idUSKBN0UC0PR20151229 ‘Ukraine’s central bank governor said on Wednesday that inflation this year had hit 44 … Continue reading →

Here is Gideon Rachman,at The Financial Times, from his column of December 28, 2015, in the grip of an almost unmanageable rhetorical hysteria, the title gives the game away, ‘Battered, bruised and jumpy — the whole world is on edge’ … Continue reading →

One marvels at the number of stunning aperçus in Mr. Ganesh’s essay: ‘Mr Crosby specialises in what his simpering victims call the “politics of fear”. ‘ ‘He cannot make people fear anything they do not already fear, but merely for … Continue reading →