StephenKMackSD's Blog

Old Socialist reads a Le Monde made to order diatribe, that undercuts itself!

Editor: The reader has to approach Nonna Mayer’s essay with more than skepticism!

Headline: The political crisis since the dissolution marks a new stage in the RN’s de-demonization.

Sub-headline: While the influence of Marine Le Pen’s party is growing, the sociologist Nonna Mayer believes that this rise needs to be put into perspective and, above all, can be curbed, provided that other political players adjust their strategies.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2024/09/14/the-political-crisis-since-the-dissolution-marks-a-new-stage-in-the-rn-s-de-demonization_6726039_23.html

Editor: Mayer provides in three paragraphs the political territory as she views it, in sum the villain’s of The Right, that include ‘the repulsive effect of the radicalization of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’. Political elasticity rules!

Marine Le Pen has much to be happy about: Her party is experiencing unprecedented political momentum. With over 31% of the vote in the European elections, double that of the Macron-aligned coalition’s list, the list led by Jordan Bardella won 30 seats in the European Parliament, becoming the largest delegation in the legislature.

Bardella, who is the president of the Rassemblement National (RN, far-right), thus took the position of head of the Patriots for Europe group, founded by Viktor Orban, the third largest group in the Parliament. In France’s parliamentary elections, despite the republican front formed by its opponents, the RN obtained 29% in the first round and 32% in the second round, managing to send 126 representatives to the Assemblée Nationale, making it the largest single political group in the chamber. If we add to that its allies led by Eric Ciotti, they have 143 seats.

At the same time, the RN’s image has considerably improved, as shown by the RN Image Barometer, which has been monitoring it since 1983. This improvement is due to Le Pen’s strategy of normalization, her ability to present herself as a bastion of democracy and secularism in the face of radical Islamism, but also due to the indulgence of both Macron-aligned and LR right-wing politicians toward her ideas, and the repulsive effect of the radicalization of Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his movement, La France Insoumise (LFI, radical left).

Editor: Mélenchon appears again, but as not just a sub rosa political ally of Le Pen but her conscious agent!

Mélenchon’s provocations, some bordering on anti-Semitism, have enabled Le Pen to position herself as the protector of France’s Jewish population, obscuring the party’s scandalous origins and her father’s deep-rooted anti-Semitism, including among a section of the Jewish electorate.

Editor: Here Mayer presents the French Electorate:

However, it is important not to overestimate its influence. The French vote is an imperfect reflection of society. Foreigners, who account for 8% of the country’s population, are, by definition, excluded from the electorate. Some 6% of French adults were unable to vote because they had not registered. Of the 49.4 million registered voters, almost half abstained from voting in the European elections (48.2%), and almost a third in each round of the parliamentary elections. In proportion to the registered electorate, the RN’s score falls to 15.7% in the European elections, 19% in the first round of the parliamentary elections and 20.2% in the second. Although it came out ahead of the other parties, it is far from being in the majority.

Editor: The Reader might wonder at the data that Mayer presents, on the voting habits of the French, to speak in American parlance, ‘what is all the fuss about’ ? I’ll end with the final paragraphs of this unimpressive diatribe that undercuts itself, as The Reader trudgers onward…

However, in the last parliamentary elections, women voters voted less often for the RN than men, most notably young women under 35, who clearly favored the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire alliance’s candidates, with half of them voting in favor of the alliance, compared to 37% of men of the same age. If their attraction to the left persists – a trend which, incidentally, is not unique to France – this would be a major setback for a party whose electoral growth has been boosted by the conquest of the women’s electorate.

The RN has undoubtedly never been so close to power, but there are still obstacles in its path, unless the right continues to serve as a stepping stone for it and the left as a boogeyman.

Old Socialist

Political Observer wonders what are Mr. Roberts’s qualifications to utter such an irresponsible, indeed bellicose pronouncement?

Editor: Here is the portion of Mr. Roberts essay devoted to Vladimir Putin and the American and EU War in Ukraine. Mr. Roberts come from an Economist Tradition that produced that Great Oxbridger Tag-Team of John Micklethwait and Adrian Wooldridge! That produced that classic apologetic for the War Mongering Bush The Younger: ‘The Right Nation: Conservative Power in America’ and his coterie of henchmen: Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and ‘Turd Blossom’ Karl Rove! As a regular reader of The Economist from the 1990’s, till they closed the comments section. When I attempted to read ‘Right Nation’ I experienced déjà vu, the already seen, as the literary/political style these two re-write men.

Hello from London,

Will conflict with Russia escalate? Vladimir Putin, again, wants to make you believe so. Joe Biden may be poised, at last, to say that Ukraine may use western-supplied weapons to hit military targets—such as airfields, logistics bases, or missile launchers—in Russian territory. That would be welcome, if overdue. Mr Putin, who booted out some British diplomats to show his anger on Friday, suggests this would be a step towards outright war between the West and Russia. His goal, of course, is to intimidate the West into inaction. But with bullies, caving into threats is a mistake. The West must dare to confront the aggressor. Ukraine, as the victim of aggression, has every right to fight back. Its allies should support it.

Russia continues to rain missiles, drones and artillery shells on Ukrainian cities and villages. Its forces are creeping towards making meaningful gains in the Donbas region of Ukraine. Across the country, Mr Putin’s goal is to destroy power supplies ahead of the winter, to further spread misery for ordinary people. Even as his forces commit war crimes, however, he has threatened Ukraine’s foreign supporters that they must not cross his red lines. At the same time, his forces continue to carry out sabotage and attempt assassinations in Europe, and to meddle in elections abroad, including in America.

Mr Putin’s threats of escalation, therefore, must be seen for what they are. He is aggressive when he observes weakness in others, not when he is met by strength. Some in the West were previously fearful about supplying battle tanks to Ukraine, and then F-16 fighter jets. As on those occasions, the lesson to take is that standing by the government in Kyiv, helping Ukraine to fend off its aggressor, is the right way to act.

The Economist and their employee Adam Roberts attempt to re-heat The Old Cold War.

Reader begin your sturdy of that Cold War, with this issue of the Journal Of Cold War Studies Fall of 2013, that offers critiques of John Lewis Gaddis’s Pulitzer Prize-winning biography of George F. Kennan , with insightful critical evaluations by critics not sycophants!

Political Observer

American Writer wonders at the dregs of French Literature!

Magdalena Miecznicka provides… The Reader can’t exactly call it gush, or even mistaken adoration, but it resembles in an odd way the Edward Luce interview of Henry Kissinger! Although Magdalena Miecznicka offers a sophisticated, wary knowledge of her subject!

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He’s a great admirer of Christopher Lasch, an American historian who argued that modern global elites have more in common with each other than the poorer people from their own countries. “He was ahead of his time,” says Houellebecq. These elites are harder to dismantle than the nobility, he muses. “Nobility had nothing to explain their right to stay in power, apart from their birth. Contemporary elites claim intellectual and moral superiority.”

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Here is another view of Lasch, or perhaps just an endorsement of Houellebecq’s position? Although Horkheimer, Adorno & Marcuse might appear odd company for Houellebecq?

…

https://www.jstor.org/stable/41035493?read-now=1&seq=2#page_scan_tab_contents

https://www.ft.com/content/73338e2e-331a-4be3-88d4-a0d9e4216c8a

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Headline: Michel Houellebecq: Brexit, sex tapes and my tears for France

Sub-headline : The controversial French novelist discusses African immigration, his new novel and laments the death of the country of his rural childhood

https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/michel-houellebecq-interview-author-new-novel-france-nhgvswv9t

Editor: the first paragraphs of Will Lloyd’s what to name it? The marriage of literature to a Houellebecqian politics of decline, despair, held together by alcohol and literary cachet? The American Reader might think of once ascendant Charles Bukowski?

So here is Michel Houellebecq. The author of eight novels, several volumes of poetry and innumerable controversies stumbles out of the first day of autumn rain in Paris towards this down-at-heel brasserie. He looks rather dazed.

And he can’t really walk. Instead he moves with a slow, pained shuffle. His knees incline towards the ground; his back bends forwards, as if all of French, all of western civilisation, were carried on his narrow shoulders. Depending on your view, Houellebecq, 68, is either a grotesque literary provocateur or the last novelist in Europe who has anything interesting left to say about the way we live now.

In France Houellebecq is revered as a prophet and condemned as a racist. Print runs for his novels run into the hundreds of thousands here, and his pronouncements, particularly about Islam, have led to court prosecutions, media frenzies and interventions from presidents and prime ministers.

He began his career as a morbid, scatological literary shock jock with the 1994 novel Extension du domaine de la lutte (translated into English as Whatever), but over the decades Houellebecq’s writing has taken on a broader social dimension. In later works, like the 2016 novel Submission (hailed in different ways by the former French president François Hollande and the leader of the National Rally, Marine Le Pen) and Serotonin (2019), the decline of France is mercilessly analysed in an atmosphere of sly, sombre resignation.

While Houellebecq’s prose can be workmanlike, his ability to identify the maximum points of pain beneath the surfaces of everyday life is not. There is no British equivalent to what Houellebecq has become: the subversive and anguished chronicler of a nation in free fall. When we meet, France has not had a functioning government for two months. Le Pen’s hard right is on the rise. The political centre has been crushed. Predictions of civil conflict fill the air.

…

https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/michel-houellebecq-interview-author-new-novel-france-nhgvswv9t

The valuable thing that Will Lloyd offers is quick capsule reviews of five books by Houellebecq.

https://www.thetimes.com/culture/books/article/michel-houellebecq-interview-author-new-novel-france-nhgvswv9t

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So much more to be said!

American Writer

Political Observer: Foreign Policy is/are active agents for The American National Security State. ‘X’ ‘s Long Telegram was the last important essay it published!

This showed up in my e mail today: 9/09/2024

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I have a confession to make. I feel a sense of paralysis in these weeks leading up to the U.S. presidential election. Whether it’s the fate of Ukraine, peace in the Middle East, competition with China, or the broader question of America’s role in the world, too much is riding on who will be the next occupant of the White House. A Donald Trump presidency would be very different from a Kamala Harris one, and polls continue to show Americans are bitterly divided on how to choose between them. Key players in global crises, from Russian President Vladimir Putin to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, seem as if they are waiting to see who wins before they make their next big move. Perhaps that’s why it’s so difficult to cast beyond Nov. 5 and imagine how a range of conflicts and issues may play out.

Four years ago, our Fall 2020 print issue tried to examine what we called “The Most Important Election. Ever.” Little did we know we’d find ourselves at a similar crossroads in 2024. Yes, Harris has replaced U.S. President Joe Biden at the top of the Democratic ticket, but many of the issues at stake—for the United States and the world—remain the same. Columnist Michael Hirsh wrote a cover essay for us about 2020; we asked him this time around to contrast the visions presented by Harris and Trump.

But back to that paralysis: What happens after Nov. 5? For starters, there’s little guarantee the U.S. public will respect the results of the election. Even if you imagine a point in the future where Americans agree on who will lead them for the next four years, the question is how the next president should unite a polarized electorate and what issues they should prioritize.

That’s a dilemma we wanted to address in our cover package, “Dear America.” Nine distinguished thinkers with lifetimes of experience in global policymaking have written nonpartisan letters of advice to the next White House—and to Americans. With the United States no longer the world’s sole hegemon, each of them considers how Washington should approach the critical challenges our planet faces.

…

Ravi Agrawal shares with @nytdavidbrooks a certain taste for flaccid melodrama!

Political Observer

Old Historian comments.

Political Observer wonders at the ‘Think Tank’ as the instrument of Propaganda. That Sells the Product of Political Respectability, under the guise of both ‘Mastery’ and ‘Expertise’!

Editor: You have to laugh at the very notion in the first paragraph’s self- congratulatory chatter, I’ll put it in italics:

The European Council on Foreign Relations :

In 2007, ECFR’s founders set about creating a pan-European institution that could combine establishment credibility with intellectual insurgency. Today, ECFR remains uniquely placed to continue providing a pan-European perspective on some of the biggest strategic challenges and choices Europeans need to confront, with a network of offices in seven European capitals, over 90 staff from more than 25 different countries and a team of associated researchers in the EU 27 member states. Find out more about our 2022-2025 Strategy Framework

https://ecfr.eu/about/

Editor : The reader might ask how can a Think Tank make the oil and water of various imperatives, explanatory frames cohere/mix, without constant agitation? Or is that the point?

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Headline: ‘Kamala Harris takes a different view of the world and America’s place in it’

Sub-headline: The US expert believes the vice president’s foreign policy, should she reach the Oval Office, might be a surprise. While she’s heir to the Democratic Party’s traditional leadership, she’s also sensitive to progressives’ demands.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/opinion/article/2024/08/29/kamala-harris-takes-a-different-view-of-the-world-and-america-s-place-in-it_6723462_23.html?lmd_medium=email&lmd_campaign=trf_newsletters_lmie&lmd_creation=lemonde_in_english_NY&lmd_send_date=20240831&lmd_link=zone_opinion_last_titre_2&M_BT=123617693181350

Editor: Célia Belin has written a book about American politics: she is now an expert? and is followed by the long forgotten, for a reason, Strobe Talbott :

Editor: The first breathless paragraphs resemble Hollywood kitsch!

Little seen by the general public and criticized in the media during her vice presidency, Kamala Harris was propelled into candidacy at the speed of light – in a twist that is sure to inspire screenwriters – but remains unknown to Americans and the rest of the world alike.

A heartbeat away from the presidency, Harris has often represented American interests to foreign partners. It was she who met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in February 2022 to urge her to believe that Vladimir Putin was determined to invade his country. It was she again who visited France in November 2021 to seal the French-American reconciliation after the Australian submarine scandal. She gave a speech at the Paris Peace Forum, launched space cooperation and took part in a summit on Libya. At these meetings, partners praised her seriousness and capacity for work, but without really being able to clarify her foreign policy views, which has often led them to believe, mistakenly, that a Harris administration would be entirely in line with Joe Biden’s. But this undoubtedly underestimates the evolutions that are sweeping America in terms of foreign policy. Though loyal to the president, Harris nevertheless belongs to a new generation of Democrats, who take a different view of the world and America’s place in it.

Editor: I recall Kamala Harris when she jailed the parents of truant students, and laughed about it! Or her AIPAC speech , where she claimed that she raised funds for Israel, instead of selling Girls Scout cookies, that gave groveling a bad name! Not forgetting her de facto pardon of Steve Mnuchin:

Mnuchin Lied About His Bank’s History of Robo-Signing Foreclosure Documents

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Kamala Harris Fails to Explain Why She Didn’t Prosecute Steven Mnuchin’s Bank

https://www.populardemocracy.org/news-and-publications/kamala-harris-fails-explain-why-she-didn-t-prosecute-steven-mnuchin-s-bank

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But the investigation into what the memo called “widespread misconduct” was closed after Harris’s office declined to file a civil enforcement action against the bank.

Harris’s statement on Tuesday doesn’t explain how involved she was with the decision to not prosecute, or why the decision was made. She also would not say whether the revelations would disqualify Mnuchin for the position of treasury secretary. “The hearings will reveal if it’s disqualifying or not, but certainly he has a history that should be critically examined, as do all of the nominees,” Harris told The Hill. She added that she would review the background and history of all Trump cabinet nominees.

Senate Democrats have vowed to put up a fight over Mnuchin — even creating a website inviting homeowners to list their complaints against OneWest. And yet not one senator has commented publicly on the leaked memo, which received media coverage in Politico, Bloomberg, the New York Post, CBS News, Vanity Fair, CNN, CNBC, and other outlets.

…

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Editor : here a selection of Célia Belin’s political refashioning of American Politics Made to Measure :

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Sometimes dubbed “the last Atlanticist president,” Biden embodies a classic version of Democratic foreign policy thinking: faith in the virtuous role of American leadership on the international stage, backed by strong international institutions and solid military alliances.

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American power – “smart power,” as Hillary Clinton, then secretary of state in the first Obama administration, called it – to combat Russian and Chinese revisionism and guarantee the stability of the world order.

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More recently, Gaza has become the main issue for progressives. At the Democratic National Convention, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Senator Bernie Sanders both hammered home the urgent need for a ceasefire, echoing the thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators outside.

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In several respects, Phil Gordon, the vice president’s national security adviser and former assistant secretary of state for European affairs, has demonstrated the pragmatic caution of this current. Preaching a form of humility and realism, they advocate the use of sanctions rather than force but demand from their allies, including the Europeans, a better sharing of the burden with America.

…

On Ukraine and Europe, Harris is firmly maintaining the course set by Biden. At the Munich Security Conference in February, she confirmed that American support for NATO is “ironclad.” In her acceptance speech at the convention, Harris promised to stand by Ukraine and defend democracy in the face of tyranny, entirely in line with Biden’s position over the past four years.

…

Editor : this final paragraph of Célia Belin’ essay is steeped in Myths of The New Democrats, as somehow expressing political/moral virtues, that have ended in the slaughter of millions: Korea, Vietnam, Cambodia, Iraq, Afghanistan, under The Axis of Evil banner of David Frum:

Editor: ‘Harris promised to stand by Ukraine and defend democracy in the face of tyranny, entirely in line with Biden’s position over the past four years.’

Editor: ‘As her Jamaican father’ : He was a Marxist!

Editor : an excerpt from the final paragraph, of this re-writing of Kamala Harris rise to political prominence, is itself infected with the self-serving political enthusiasm, of a Think Tank hireling on assignment!

…on this issue, walking a fine line between recognizing Israel’s right to defend itself and – at the same time – the Palestinians’ right to dignity, security and self-determination. But this balancing act will certainly push her to step up the pressure on Israel, should she enter the Oval Office in January 2025.

Editor: Final thought: Like Leo Strauss @celiabelin attempts to re-write history, yet her Readers were/are witnesses to whole history of Kamala Harris political apotheosis! Pardon the purple!

Political Observer

Political Observer takes the measure of Macron, and his self-serving political opportunism

Aug 29, 2024

Editor: The Washington Post of August 28, 2024:

French President Emmanuel Macron said this week that politics played no part in Durov’s arrest. “France is deeply committed to freedom of expression and communication, to innovation, and to the spirit of entrepreneurship,” Macron said in a post on X. “It will remain so.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2024/08/28/telegram-durov-indicted/?utm_source=alert&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=wp_news_alert_revere&location=alert

Editor: Jeff Bezos is a CIA employee, sub-contractor.

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Editor: Le monde August 27, 2024

Headline : French left denounces ‘denial’ of democracy after Macron refuses to appoint its candidate as PM

Sub-headline: The French president officially ruled out the left-wing coalition’s candidate in the name of ‘institutional stability’ and excluded the radical left from a further day of talks. The other parties in the alliance are refusing to take part in solidarity.

…

Some left-wing elected officials are thus all the more upset with Attal’s more recent letter. On Monday, the outgoing PM criticized Mélenchon’s “pretense of openness,” paving the way for “support without participation” when the LFI leader asked whether a Castets government without any members of his party would be subject to a no-confidence vote. Attal believes that Mélenchon wants “the pure and simple implementation of his platform, without openness or compromise.” This statement doesn’t acknowledge the letter Castets sent him on August 12, when the senior civil servant reached out to other political groups, proposing a more collaborative working approach.

Built in haste for the legislative elections, the NFP edifice has so far held firm. But on August 27, it will be subjected to the tremors of Socialist dissension. The party’s two minority factions – led by Hélène Geoffroy, who is close to former Socialist president François Hollande, and the mayor of Rouen, Normandy, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol – have been calling for a national bureau meeting ever since LFI launched its impeachment plan. Under pressure, Faure has scheduled a meeting for Tuesday at noon during which the political response to Macron will be discussed. Some Socialists disagree with the refusal to go to the Elysée meeting, advocate building a coalition plan and want to distance the party from LFI. “We’re going to have to choose between the interests of the French and Mélenchon’s presidential obsession,” argued former Socialist MP Patrick Mennucci. It’s a new test for the alliance of the political left.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/france/article/2024/08/27/french-left-denounces-denial-of-democracy-after-macron-refuses-to-appoint-its-candidate-as-pm_6722295_7.html

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Editor: Le Monde of August 27, 2024 :

Headline: Why Macron refused to appoint left-wing alliance’s candidate as prime minister

Sub-headline: In a statement on Monday evening, the French president rejected the candidacy of Lucie Castets for prime minister, proposed by the left-wing Nouveau Front Populaire alliance, in the name of the necessary ‘institutional stability.’

…

Although nothing has emerged from Macron’s meeting with right-wing Sénat President Gérard Larcher, which took place late Monday afternoon, the head of state seems to believe in the goodwill of his camp toward the next government – provided it is not an NFP government. On Friday, right-wing representatives told him that they would not oppose the budget if it did not include tax increases or a freeze on retirement pensions. They also indicated they wouldn’t oppose a prime minister from the left, as long as he or she has “a sense of the state and the general interest, and is familiar with the machinery of state,” explained the president of the LR group in the Sénat, Bruno Retailleau. As for Marine Le Pen, she informed Macron that she would vote against any NFP government, but the Elysée said that she would not vote against another government a priori.

But more than 40 days after the Attal government resigned, France is still without a prime minister. “My responsibility is to ensure that the country is neither blocked nor weakened. The governing political parties must not forget the exceptional circumstances of the election of their MPs in the second round of the legislative elections. This vote obliges them,” wrote the French president in the conclusion of the Elysée communiqué. Always quick to hold political leaders responsible for a situation he himself created by deciding to dissolve the Assemblée Nationale.

Editor: Their can be no doubt that Macron and his ‘Jupertarian Politics’, riffing on Mozart, & reeking of political inflation, and the rebirth of ‘French Mad Men’ ? Macron was American Made, a product off the assembly line of the Neo-Liberal Factory, with an impressive academic record, and Banking experience: Rothschild & Cie Banque in Paris.

Political Observer

Political Observer comments.

stephenkmacksd.com/

Aug 27, 2024

Editor: Le Monde’s Damien Leloup:

Headline: Pavel Durov’s arrest is a defense of the rule of law rather than an attack on freedom of expression

Sub-headline: Elon Musk’s view that the arrest of the Telegram boss is ‘censorship’ is, at best, a mistake and, at worst, a demonstration of bad faith.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/pixels/article/2024/08/26/pavel-durov-s-arrest-is-a-defense-of-the-rule-of-law-rather-than-an-attack-on-freedom-of-expression_6721814_13.html?lmd_medium=email&lmd_campaign=trf_newsletters_lmie&lmd_creation=lemonde_in_english_NY&lmd_send_date=20240826&lmd_link=editors-pick_titre_1&M_BT=123617693181350

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The Western National Security States have begun their attacks on Free Speech. In Britain the attack has begun on private citizens, who reposted tweets or comments: three thousand citizens including Richard Midhurst have been arrested/detained under Section 127 of the Communications Act !

https://www.theverge.com/2022/2/7/22912054/uk-grossly-offensive-tweet-prosecution-section-127-2003-communications-act

The political precursor of this was/is the persecution of Julian Assange!

Editor: Damien Leloup public moralizing/scolding begins in the headline.

Headline: Pavel Durov’s arrest is a defense of the rule of law rather than an attack on freedom of expression

It’s an argument that we heard over and over again on Sunday, August 25, from Moscow to San Francisco: The arrest of the CEO of the Telegram messaging service the previous evening by French police is an attack on freedom of expression. “Pavel Durov sits in a French jail tonight, a living warning to any platform owner who refuses to censor the truth at the behest of governments and intel agencies,” asserted far-right American presenter Tucker Carlson; a “very convincing” advertisement for the US Constitution’s First Amendment (which guarantees a very broad right to free speech), rebuked Elon Musk, owner of X and supporter of Donald Trump.

In response, several Russian officials and politicians described the arrest as “political,” in the words of Vladislav Davankov, vice president of the State Duma. Almost comical accusations. In their statements of support, the Kremlin and Russian politicians seemed to forget that it was Russia that first tried to block Telegram − unsuccessfully − in 2018 and that it was people close to the Kremlin who got their hands on the VKontakte empire, created by the Durov brothers, in 2014. On Sunday, a handful of peaceful demonstrators protesting outside the French embassy in Moscow in support of Durov were arrested for taking part in an illegal demonstration.

Editor: The Reader from America wonders … The American Constitution enshrines the right of Free Speech. In fact Oliver Wendell Holmes opined that the only impermissible speech, was to yell fire in a crowded theater.

Michael A. Carrier, Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes: Law and the Inner Self, 93 MICH. L. REV. 1894 (1995)

https://repository.law.umich.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3164&context=mlr

Editor: Damien Leloup proposes in italics:

Above all, many of the criticisms leveled at France after Durov’s arrest are, whether in good or bad faith, aimed at the wrong target. Contrary to Tucker Carlson’s claims, the Telegram CEO was not arrested for refusing to “censor” political opinions. The French investigation does not concern “opinion crimes,” but quite standard offenses, including the dissemination of child pornography. As in any democracy, Durov is presumed innocent and will have the opportunity to defend himself in a public trial, should he be indicted.

Editor : it takes time to enumerate the crimes of Durov, although the most toxic, shocking charge of ‘Child Pornography’ , seems to have have disappeared from Damien Leloup’s proposed bill of attainder? Reader, again please note the final paragraph in italics. Leloup seems to be in the thrall Class Bias!

Durov’s arrest comes after years of fruitless exchanges between the application and investigators and governments in dozens of countries, all of whom have leveled the same criticisms at the platform: lack of moderation, failure to cooperate even in serious criminal cases… The company refuses to cooperate in any way with law enforcement agencies and only takes action when the balance of power becomes too unfavorable.

It’s easy to understand why, for Silicon Valley bosses like Elon Musk, who are used to flouting European rules with almost total impunity, this arrest came as a shock. It shows that even a billionaire running a platform with hundreds of millions of users cannot forever ignore the rules of the countries in which he wants not only to operate his service, but also to be able to travel around for pleasure.

https://www.lemonde.fr/en/pixels/article/2024/08/26/pavel-durov-s-arrest-is-a-defense-of-the-rule-of-law-rather-than-an-attack-on-freedom-of-expression_6721814_13.html?lmd_medium=email&lmd_campaign=trf_newsletters_lmie&lmd_creation=lemonde_in_english_NY&lmd_send_date=20240826&lmd_link=editors-pick_titre_1&M_BT=123617693181350

Political Observer

Political Cynic tries to measure the political temperature of this Oxbridger Clique!

A bit of shopworn Political Melodrama begins this essay, without a mention of the behind the scenes maneuvering/blackmail that resulted in Biden’s withdrawal from the contest. The last paragraphs of Seymour Hersh’s reportage are revelatory:

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A key factor in the decision to force Biden out of office by invoking the 25th Amendment was a series of increasingly negative polls on the president’s standing against Trump that had been commissioned by the funders, the official said. “The downward slope was increasing.” Polling would also be important for the vice president, I was told, and it was agreed that if the polls did not continue to show her gaining traction, other options would be considered, including an open convention. I was unable to learn if Harris was aware of such considerations or whether she intends to abide by them.

The official, who has decades of experience in fundraising, told me that Obama emerged as the strongman throughout the negotiations. “He had an agenda and he wanted to seek it through to the end, and he wanted to have control over who would be elected.”

A few days after we talked, with Harris getting off to a solid start, Obama and his wife announced their endorsement of Harris and told her, over the phone in a staged TV event, that they would do all they could to campaign for her and to support her.

But she had better perform. 

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The above too politically radioactive, for The Economist’s Oxbridger Clique, well connected to apparatus of the British National Security. The Reader might picture the Editor Zanny Minton Beddoes on the phone to MI6?

Editor: The Political Melodrama Begins, in its politically truncated form:

A few weeks ago the Democratic convention looked as if it would be a wake. Instead it has been a love-in. Delegates’ ebullience has been spiced with relief that their nominee has saved the party from almost-certain defeat.

Kamala Harris has accomplished this less because of who she is than who she is not. For a start she is not Joe Biden, who showed in a valedictory speech in Chicago that age has turned him into a scold. And neither is she Donald Trump. Now that President Biden is out of the race, the Republican nominee is the old man on the ballot, and he drives voters away with his petty insults and his dark obsessions.

However, Ms Harris needs more. Our forecast model has the race tied. In a bid to make her someone people actually want to vote for, the convention was all about her character and her life-story. Americans now know she worked at McDonald’s and that every year she teases her husband by playing the rambling voicemail he left asking her for a first date.

Unfortunately, how that would translate into a Harris presidency remains disconcertingly vague. She has reasons for building her campaign around personality: policy can be a liability, Mr Trump is no wonk and, with him as an opponent, character matters. Yet, worryingly, her tactics may also signal something more fundamental.

This part of the final quoted paragraph ‘a Harris presidency remains disconcertingly vague” is the very key to Harris’ political viability? Yet Musk and his Cadre of Billionaires are already …

Editor: Elon Musk is already scolding Harris for her Capital Gaines Tax ‘promise’ or ‘backs’ the Biden’s Tax Plans. Neo-Liberals adapt from political moment to political moment!

Editor: The Economist diagnoses Harris manifold political weaknesses:

Politically, Ms Harris is still an unknown quantity—and she is partly responsible for keeping it that way. In the Biden administration she was overshadowed, as vice-presidents usually are. She became the nominee without being tested in a primary. Since Mr Biden’s withdrawal, she has not given interviews and she has taken few questions from reporters. Her policy platform was mostly inherited from her boss, and it is even sparser than Mr Trump’s. When she takes positions—such as vowing to deal with corporate price-gouging—they may not be expressions of her political beliefs so much as campaign manoeuvres designed to placate voters worried about the cost of living.

Editor: Presenting the obvious as ‘insightful’, demonstrates trading in well worn cliches. It does not qualify as reportage!

Editor: More of the same… the briefing … : Repetition in longer form does not demonstrate insightful analysis, but ranks as self-reifying propaganda!

Our briefing this week sets out to make sense of all this—and Ms Harris’s record in the Senate and as a politician in California. She is not one of those whose career reveals a set of deep convictions or an inner core of beliefs. Instead, like Mr Biden, she positions herself slightly to the left of centre of her party and adjusts as it evolves. Worse than him, her policies on the economy and in foreign affairs seem to be unanchored.

Editor: some selective quotation of this essay might be a way to clear the way for The Reader to assert her critical faculties?

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Pragmatism has its virtues in a politician.

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Pragmatism also means that Ms Harris is open to other people’s ideas.

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But when pragmatism signals a lack of thought-through principles, it can spell danger.

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Likewise, without strong fundamental beliefs and a set of guiding priorities, a president can easily be blown off-course by events.

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Her overriding task is to defeat Mr Trump, and it is a vital one in which guile and cunning are permitted

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But there are reasons to press Ms Harris for more. One is that to do so could soon be in her political interest. Should personality lose its power to propel her campaign forward, policy could be one way to revive it.

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If it is the first time she tries to unspool a single thread running through her life, her principles and her policies, she is unlikely to do her best.

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Editor: The final paragraph of this essay resorts to practiced political cliche, not a surprise, given this publication’s history of platitudinous, in fact, obsequious political conformity!

The other, more important reason to press Ms Harris is that being a politician is about more than campaigning. Governing matters, too. And, for a party that wants to strengthen democracy, governing is better if its winning mandate contains a programme. You can be desperate for Ms Harris to defeat Mr Trump and still wonder how good she will be in office. As the vice-president in a one-term administration, she might be tempted to govern with victory in 2028 as a focus. Unless she is clearer about what she wants to do with power, her term will be dominated by campaigning—with all its vices.

Political Cynic

Political Cynic thinks of the long dead American Poet Frank O’Hara!

The opening paragraphs are not exactly replaced, but a black & white photo of three long dead American literary figures : John Updike, John Steinbeck and Arthur Miller at an event in New York, in 1966 © Getty Images provides a backdrop of a kind.

Editor: Just a sampler of the chatter:

-can Will Lewis survive at the Post – slow down the British takeover of American newsrooms?- peak Substack?- the BBC under a Labour government?–season two of Succession get the Murdochs so right- that columnist at the FT?- A rash hire, wasn’t it?

Editor: notice that Ganesh includes himself in this collection. But note Ganesh’s warning:

When journalists convene, some or all of these matters get an airing, which is an excellent reason to be elsewhere. The challenge is to build and maintain that alternative circle.

Editor: Note that Ganesh is not Frank O’Hara, his chatty poems, riffing on themes were once the rage, of another time and place , unknown to Ganesh? This just an aside. The next paragraph offers something like an uncanny riff on O’Hara in an ominous tonality.

Even the greatest cities on Earth fail to honour their central promise: that of wide-ranging human contact. Urbanites live near a jumble of different people but, in the absence of strenuous effort, end up in the social swim of their own and adjacent professions. This ghettoisation sets in during those hard-working years after university. By 30, it is difficult to undo. So — and here I address the young, chiefly those starting work this autumn — avoid this trap from the beginning. For it is a double curse. First, it creates a single point of failure. If your job goes, much of your social life goes with it. 

Editor: Ganesh broaches the subject :

…of Nassim Nicholas Taleb – who clocked that the great moderns — Darwin, Marx, Freud and the Einstein of the annus mirabilis —

That is, each had enough exposure to life outside their specialism to produce unlikely swoops of thought. (Taleb might have added Keynes, who was in and out of Cambridge.) For the rest of us, toiling at a humdrum level, the point still holds. No writer, management consultant or engineer should consort too much with their own. Employers half-understand this. It has become Leadership 101 to drag in high performers from alien fields to disclose their “insights” for staff. But it won’t do. You have to socialise with them at length. You want their patterns of thought, not so much their thoughts. 

Editor: it doesn’t take much to provoke Ganesh’s political imagination

Tim Walz is the first person on either the top or bottom half of a Democratic presidential ticket since 1980 who did not attend law school. That is 20 individuals across 10 elections over 40 years who pursued a JD or LLB. Not one of the four Republican presidents over the period had a legal background.

Editor: Ganesh describes America Liberalism, failing to recognize that it is dead!

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Law is a great subject and career. I’ve come to know it a little bit for a side project. But all professions have their deforming effects. And those of law are all over modern American liberalism.

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An exhausting primness about words and their use. (A good thing in a contract dispute. Less so in a conversation with the electorate about gender and other.

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The right was quicker than the left to spot that something had changed in the public mood in those years after the 2008 crash. Because it was cleverer? No. But perhaps because it was less bovine and insular.

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Editor: That Black & White photograph of John Updike, John Steinbeck, Arthur Miller finally figures in the most oblique way in the Ganesh essay!

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It is yours to find and retain friends of diverse kens in your own life. One needn’t emulate the twenty-something John Updike, who quit New York for Ipswich, Massachusetts, in part to meet people who “aren’t in [his] game”. But no effort at all, and even that game is lost. 

Editor: Updike was another sexually obsessed heterosexual, in a very crowed and boring field of American Literary Writers. He also wrote Bech: A Book reviewed here. The Reader might look to Joan Didion’s ‘Play It as It Lays’ of 1970, Kate Millets Sexual Politics of 1970 , and Eva Figes Patriarchal Attitudes also of 1970! In furtherance of educating one’s self !

Political Cynic